I was finishing stitching the binding on the baby quilt last night when - shock horror - I realised that I had missed a bit of quilting. You can see it here on the back of the quilt
So I nipped out to the studio before we went out this morning, to fill in the gap
My sewing machine plugs into a socket under the table, so my knees were complaining when I crawled under the table twice in a few minutes!
As I went back to the house, the sun was shining on the garden seat, so I paused to take a photo of the now finished quilt
We usually go out for lunch on Wednesdays, going somewhere local on knit'n'natter days, but heading out and about on the other Wednesdays. Yesterday we had planned to go to Robert Smail's Printing Works in Innerleithen, but fortunately Malcolm checked the opening times and found that it is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So we decided to go today. As the premises don't open until noon, we thought that we would head to Peebles for lunch. It got off to a good start, with a very stylish cup for my tea
and Malcolm was pleased with his flat white
Then Malcolm's lunch was put on the table - poached eggs and bacon on a muffin, with hollandaise sauce - perfect!
Next, mine arrived - oh dear ...... this is supposed to be chicken soup with herb dumplings
You may think the three white blobs are generous pieces of chicken ..... no, that's the dumplings! I could have bounced them off the floor, they were so dense. There was a generous helping of shredded chicken, but other then that there was a very small amount of diced carrot (which was uncooked) and a bit of spring onion. I ate the chicken, but when it came to supping the liquid, it had so little taste, I gave up. After complaining, the waitress did return to apologise and give the chef's excuses. She asked if I wanted anything else - I said no, I would rather they just didn't charge for the soup, so that's what happened. I was very disappointd, as I had pictured a steaming bowl of traditional chicken soup, with lots of carrot, onion and rice, topped by fluffy dumplings. (the waitress did also say that they had taken it off the menu)
However, a spot of retail therapy soon cheered me up, especially when I got a jam funnel ...... no more messy jars when I make jam
Then it was on to the printworks
We spent well over an hour having an excellent guided tour - including some hands on fun, preparing a line of type to have our own bookmarks printed
We learned that upper and lower case are called that because they were in upper and lower cases!
After learning how to set the type - from left to right and upside down! - we saw the machines still used to print all manner of things including calendars, which are based on old designs (they have full records of everything the firm ever printed)
They used to print a weekly newspaper, with each page taking 13 hours to typeset. Now they print one edition a year. The adverts are printed on the front, so you can't read the news without buying the paper! (I love the use of the word 'effective' in the header!)
Do look at the link, as it is fascinating reading about the firm, which was owned by three generations of the same family, before passing to the National Trust 25 years ago.
To end our day out, we went for a cuppa, and to make up for the disappointment of my lunch, we had the most delicious treacle scone