This and That...

Even though Ride Outs and Common Riding have and still are taking up one or two days a week I have been busy. What with? Well, a bit of this and a bit of that.....

I've piped and bound one of my own quilts and am trying to decide if it is really finished?

I have a custom quilt loaded and am doing the SiD work on it, I like to do all of the stitch in the ditch work first so that I can then roll the quilt back and forth and know it's all stable.

I decided it was time to do a little service work on my longarm. The chirper on my Stitch Regulator has been silent for too long. I had Amy at APQS send me a replacement circuit board along with another consignment recently.  It had been here a while so when I had a window and a few spare minutes I decided to tackle it. Only thing holding me back was getting someone to hold one end of the rails while I removed them, I can do it myself but it's safer with 2 people....then I just like to be left by myself to do the job.

All those wires look a little scary but really they are not, just unplug the wires, unclip the board, clip in the new board and plug the wires back in....screw the back panel back on and it's done....now my chirper is speaking to me again.....I like my chirper....


I had a couple of quilts picked up......

The first was a ZigZag quilt in blues and white, my customer Jan requested a watery theme as some of the fabrics were reminicent of indigos with Koi Carp prints. It was a big quilt for a Super king size bed.....

Janet's been using fabric from her stash, with a little forthought about the orientation of the fabrics it's an turned into an interesting quilt to stand and read....

I had a lovely phone call from Mary one of my customers during Quilts UK at Malvern to say that her quilt 'Stars in the Garden' had won her a 'judges choice' award and a 1st for me for Longarm Quilting. Mary is keeping the cup which already has my name on it and I get the rosette to add to my collection.

It's great to have a rosette of a different colour for a change, even though the rest are all golden yellow there is one second and a third the rest are all firsts....don't know why....must have been a bargain buy????

Common Riding......

Thursday night is Colour Bussing night.......when the Cornets Lass ties the ribbons to the Flag and then the Cornet ties the ribbons on 'The Horse'.....the Cornet and his followers then take a walk around the town....

Friday was the main day for the Common Riding here in Hawick.....we were in town to watch the horses leave at 8.30am through the vennel at the Tower Knowe. Only Men and boysvare allowed to ride on Friday, women and girls are allowed to ride on Saturday.  My DH counted 324 horses with his sheep counter/clicker......here they are leaving to ride in procession around the town before heading off up to the Nipknowes....




On there way to 'the hut' the riders 'chase' up the Nipknowes, Acting Father and married men first then The Cornet, single men and boys follow....here's a short segment when the 324 horses came thundering by....fantastic sight....



After the traditional songs and speeches at the hut the horses and riders ride the boundaries and cut the sod before arriving at 'The Mair'' and all ride a circuit of the race track.

There's children racing and horse racing.... and eating and drinking....

The youngsters can earn a bit of money being 'a hodder' while the riders take a break for three or four hours. On a day like this it's not a difficult job....can you see how difficult this is....you have to lie down in the grass to do it....lol...

On the return to town, The Cornet visits the cobble pool to dip the flag in the river..........that's a potted version of the day....lots more going on besides.  All this celebrating and fun, how could it be any better on a day like this? Check back next year to see how much more fun can be had to celebrate 500 years of Hawick Common Riding?

Denholm.....

I know I'm a nearly a week late with this post but need to catch up a bit...

Chris the Cornet with his Right and Left Hand Men and the Acting Father behind

Fieron had a first outing on her 'new to her' pony.....her brother Kyle rode a short way on her first to make sure Layla wasn't excited but also so that Dad could be sure he could concentrate on Beauty who is Kyles next horse....Beauty needs to be ridden on a little more so that Kyle can safely take her on his own.

Fieron and Layla got along famously...here they are on the Denholm rideout....

It's always a relief when everyone is back safely.....

Thursday Night Chase....

Horses can make you laugh and make you cry all in about five minutes.....

Bess was so well behaved at the Thursday Night chase last week we trusted her perfectly with Kyle and he handled her in his usual quiet and gentle way......

Then the next day we had a bit of a trauma.....Bess was at it again...self harming.....managed to get her leg wrapped around the feeder.....because she is the lovely natured horse that she is after an initial consultation and treatment with the Vet she is very lucky to be on the mend. Although not a pleasant job we can dress her wounds ourselves...shame she turns into a wild beast when she sees a hypodermic needle though?????

It's a big shame that Kyle has lost his riding partner at this stage in the Common Riding but she was on loan from Grandad...so time to move on a stage.....

Mosspaul Saturday 2013

What a difference a week makes.....Glorious sunshine for the longest 'ride out' to Mosspaul , it's around 28 miles all told before the riders return and are lead into town by the Hawick Brass Band. Any riders who complete the full ride for the first time can become members of the Ancient Order of Mosstroopers     and wear their badge with pride.

Moss-troopers were bandits who operated in Scotland during and after the period of the English Commonwealth in the mid-17th century.
Many moss-troopers were disbanded or deserting soldiers from one of the Scottish armies of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They had kept their weapons and lived a life of banditry, attacking both civilians and Parliamentary soldiers for supplies during the Royalist rising of 1651 to 1654 when English Parliamentarian troops under George Monck occupied Scotland. Moss-troopers usually operated in small bands, either on the fringes of the Highlands or in the border regions. Many Highland lairds complained of moss-troopers' cattle-stealing and of how they incurred military reprisals against the Highlands as a whole.

So, because of the wonderful weather this week this blog post is photo rich and tells the story of the day.....please give the photos time to load..... there is also a video of the return into town at the bottom....