The weather outside was overcast and dreary but inside we were entertained by Fiona Franklin recounting the story of the WI Group who raised funds for a Leukemia charityby posing for a calendar using  flowers to cover their modesty!  There was of course an arrangement made from big bold sunflowers, a recurring theme of the calendar, one depicting ‘afternoon tea’ to represent the photograph where cup cakes were featured, another arrangement represented the glamour of the trip to Los Angeles to appear on a TV chat show and another was exotic and rich.  It was a lovely evening and Fiona used some really beautiful flowers.  The photos below give  a flavour of the evening.

A group of around 20 of us met at the Church Hall on Goldington Road early last Saturday for a full day workshop led by John Chennell.  The theme of the day was ‘extending the size’ which meant making a structure to add in to an arrangement to make look bigger than it really is!  We all turned up with various types of twigs and sticks and spent the morning wiring, glueing and tying them together.  Some of us (especially me!) had more glue on us than on our creation!  However, after lunch we began adding the flowers and by late afternoon everyone had an arrangement to be proud of.  It was quite a challenging day, but I think everyone attending learnt something and went away happy.  A few photos from the day are below.

After a week of glorious sunshine, it was back to dull and grey by the time Anna Stevens from Oxford cane to visit us.  However, she soon added lots of colour to our evening with her beautiful flower arrangements.  There was one in almost every colour and by the end of the evening the stage looked stunning.   However, it was not just her flowers that had our attention, but her wonderful selection of mechanics and containers, most of which she had made herself  using everything from wood bark towool to wire .  Anna has a strong background in Art, and this really shone through her work.  She talked about space and texture and visual balance as well as her life in Oxford and I think I speak for all of us when I say we went away inspired and hope that she will re-visit us in the not-too-distant future.

For our first demonstation of this year, we invited Mary Griffiths from Mildenhall to visit us.  Mary created 6 lovely arrangements most of which used garden foliage that Mary had gathered from various gardens of her friends but the final one used bought ferns and ruscus that she put together with some beautiful whilte lilies  to make a real impact.  She talked about her memories of her earlier life in Jersey and how she ‘got into’ flower arranging.   The evening sped by and got our year off to an excellent start.

On Tuesday evening we had a lovely Christmas meeting with Lorena Dyer from Coventry who delighted us with a selection of Christmas arrangements based on everything from a box of chocolates to an evening at the ballet!  Lorenena’s designs were full of bold colours and after just a couple of hours, she had filled the stage.  A few photos from the evening are below….

A group of us had a lovely day yesterday at the Church Hall in Kempston Rural when Laura Leong came down to lead 2 Christmas themed workshops – in the morning we did ‘Traditional with a Twist’ – where we were offered a choice of making either a beautiful holly leaf door wreath or a cone shaped ‘christmas tree’ arrangement in an urn.  The afternoon session was entitled  ‘Contemporary Christmas’ and again we had a choice of what to create – either a wire frame that we had to form from wires and string covered wire – (quite intricate but we all rose to the challenge!) that we subsequently decorated with berries, ivy, dried fruits, baubles or anything else that people had brought along and the second one was a modern decoration on a wreath frame.  Some people did both the morning and afternoon session, some did just one.  Laura made all four arrangements plus a couple of others and they were raffled off – she also showed us some other little techniques such as how to make a lovely 5 pointed star using wire wrapped around a ruler.  I’ve just been out in my garage having a go at that now!  I think we all learned something new, as well as enjoying the social side of the event and look forward to the next workshop – whatever it may be!

Janet Cooper from Northamptonshire gave us a step back in time with her demonstration entitled “My Colour Palette”
Back to our roots as flower arrangers with the NAFAS Colour Wheel as her inspiration.  Among the arrangements she used elements of the colour wheel to create a Monochromatic Design (tones of all one colour) and then a Polychromatic Design using all colours as if we had just been given a mixed bunch from the Garage or Supermarket, but of course with the added extra an Orchid! Good use of texture and forms within her arrangments and ideas that could be scaled down to
enhance any home. A wonderful evening with so many arrangments to take home for the lucky raffle ticket winners.

We had a lovey morning yesterday at Christ Church Hall in Goldington where under the expert guidance of the two Ann’s from our Committee we met to get some hints, tips and advice on how to create the perfect pedestal.  Everyone attending had been asked to not spend more than £10 on flowers as this was felt to be the amount allowed by many local churches for doing the Church flowers.  After just 2 hours, the hall was filled with a huge variety of colours and styles of pedestal arrangements – all beautiful – and we’d all had an enjoyable morning too.  Many thanks to Ann P and Anne G for organising it so well.

What a pleasure to welcome Jayne on the 4th October for our open meeting , and what a spectacular evening it was with such wonderful arrangements. Beginning with the urn, for the foliage Jayne used weigillia and trailing ivy and fatsia leaves.  For the flowers Jayne used pale pink roses and powder blue delphinium and carnations, and lime green chrysanthimums.

In her second arrangement Jayne used a type of conifer  called ‘thauja’ , and said that ”it the sent of apples and pinapples. For the flowers Jayne used the zedbra grass and yellow rose and also gladiolis, and the bright sunflowers and also the brassica.

Jayne’s third arrangement was the imaginative butterfly with the wings that she made out of damp twiggs to form the shape and then let it dry out, the arrangement was in a cone sprayed with lots of glitter. Some aspidistra leaves and fatsia leaves, and also the phoenix palm. Then placing the the lovely open pink lily’s, and the cerise gerbera, and roses before finally adding the cymbidium orchid.

For the fourth arrangement, Jayne used a metal round frame, which she had addapted in the middle Jayne has used a wreath wire and secured it with the  fabric , and had made swirls out of wire and used bullion wire to infill these showing different textures in the design.  Again phoenix palm was used and choicer . Then adding a green cymbidium and the pale green anthurium with just a hint of pale pink on them almost as if painted or sprayed on, and green blooms.

The fifth arrangement was also in a metal interlocking  frame again which Jayne had used with sisal and leaves cones sequences and glitter  and sceleton leavesand sprayed. Using the smoked bush leaves and the seed heads of crocosimia. The flowers that were used were cherry brandy roses and chinese lanturns.

Jaynes final arrangement was a star made from chicken wire and sisal. gypsophillia was used to interperatethe stars, Jayne used open white lily’s and green carnation in this arrangement , along with aspidistra leaves that were sprayed in silver spray paint, and some phormium leaves, and large avalanche roses