Sunday 14 June 2015

Moving right along!

It's been busy!

What am I talking about, it's still busy, it's always busy here!

Boredom, what is that? I don't think I have ever been bored in my life, I always have something to do, I always have too much to do. Some stuff is exciting and I can't wait to get on with it, other stuff is like being stuck in a traffic jam, it causes a hold up and it feels like nothing gets done. My tactic to the 'traffic jam' stuff is to just do something that is not so exciting or more time consuming so that I can 'treat' myself by moving on to the exciting stuff! Try it, it works just push on through the more mundane, it may be office work, housework, ironing or a not so precisely pieced quilt top that is in your queue to quilt, just do something to clear the 'traffic jam'.

We had a busy few days over the past week or so with the culmination of the Hawick Common Riding 2015. The Friday was a glorious day with men only riders we set Kyle off with Willow and watched at various vantage points before the horses arrived at the Mare. It was a bit disappointing, not least for the rider who fell off and hurt himself right on the course which meant that more than 3/4 of the riders didn't get to gallop the racecourse. The cost of a hired horse for the day was £180 so not to get the thrill and cheers of the gallop must hurt a little in the wallet but it's also disappointing for horse owners too, it isn't cheap to keep a horse from one year to the next, a set of shoes cost £70, never mind tack and feed.


This quilt went home to my lovely customer Anna, it has a pieced backing and although I'm not really a fan of pieced backs, it did turn out well, my fear is that the different weaves of the various fabrics may stretch and warp and indeed the backing did sag in the middle but I don't think there were any puckers....

I used a curved ruler and freemotion feathers to pull in some of the fullness, it worked really well.




 My customer always loves the quilting so I wasn't worried.

Last Friday we made an early trip over to Selkirk for their Common Riding, we were up at 4.30am and had the horses and breakfast loaded up, we left and were ready for the ride to leave the town at 7am....Selkirk is not so civilised as Hawick whose rides are mostly in the afternoons...

Kyle and Fieron ready to muster with the other riders following the Standard Bearer....
Selkirk Standard Bearer, the ride follows hin to the top of that hill way off in the distance



Fi, Riding her first 'chase' up The Toll back into town...

Monday 1 June 2015

Denholm - Hawick Common Riding 2015

Last Saturday's rideout headed to Denholm, this is the last of the Hawick Common Riding rideouts for 2015, before the big celebrations and processions next week. We took Willow and Beauty down in the trailer first, got them ready and watched all of the horses leave including Kyle and Millie...we counted 260 horses and riders, then we headed home again with Fieron to pick up Bess.




Kyle and Marie


Frazer, Millie and Catherine in front with Kyle behind on the left

Look who turned up for Denholm Rideout...waiting for the horses to show on the horizon...




Fieron and Bess, both calmly waiting to join in the ride.....





Fieron with Bess, Millie with Beauty and Catherine with Sam

And off they go!







Waiting in Denolm for the return ride.....








Always a relief to see everyone arrive back safe and sound....