Weaving a willow wreath

I'm unsure now how or where I first met Marguerite Fleming.  A warm spirited Irish lady, crofter and crafter, Marge is a powerhouse - one of those people you think must have 48 hours in every day!

Along with husband, Frank, she manages Westfield Croft, home to hives of bees, fields of rare breed sheep, a multitude of poultry, a large willow coppice and Marge's search and rescue dogs.  

We probably first met chatting about her wool at a local yarn show or maker's market.  I've knitted with her beautiful Blue Faced Leicester wool...

 and Spangle, our kitten, loves the cat mat Marge wove on her peg loom.

Recently I spotted an ad for an autumn wreath weaving workshop run by Marge.  I signed up right away and took my pal, Vicki, along with me.  Held locally in a former school repurposed as a community space, we were welcomed with refreshments and greeted by tables laden with dried flowers, cones and teasels, whilst additional floral art materials lined the walls.

There was lots of willow too, with different coloured stems, all grown at Westfield Croft.

As the class gathered, we had the chance to see what we were going to make by checking out Marge's sample wreaths.

To begin with, Marge showed us how to take some of the thicker willow branches and bend them by hand, one at a time, encouraging them into a circle shape.  We had to do this well away from each other so we didn't accidentally catch our classmates with any errant whippy stems!

After building up the ring until we were happy with its shape, we trimmed away unwanted leaves and ends.

Then it was time to chose our decorations.  I was drawn to the soft yellows whilst Vicki chose these muted pinks and greys.

There was wool to wind round our wreaths and wire to stabilise the delicate strawflowers.  We used florists wire to secure the cones, grasses and flowers to our designs.  They can be easily removed in future to repurpose our willow wreaths for Christmas.

In the meantime, here's how my autumn willow wreath looked at the end of the class.

The two hours had flown by in such an enjoyable way, thanks for Marge's patient tutelage, and we were soon admiring each others handiwork.  

There was just time for a class photo with Marge before Vicki and I headed out for lunch.

Once home, Vicki sent me a photo of her wreath hanging up.  It's so pretty against her painted door.

When I got home, I decided to replaced the wool wound round the top of my wreath with a bow fashioned from this rustic ribbon.

Thanks to Marge for a lovely instructive workshop with great company. 

To hear about future workshops with Westfield Croft, 

keep in touch through the website, 

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