You might like to read this fascinating story about the Country Women’s Association in Aus (the WI equivalent and coming up their centenary, too, in 2022): Scones in Aus!
Category Archives: Special event
New WI social events around the county
There’s loads happening around the county for members, and sometimes friends can attend, too. Choose from hearing how the interment of Richard III was organised, supporting women around the world, Radio Leicester meets the WI, lunches (Julie Summers is speaking about the TV series Women on the Home Front) at Barnsdale and WI house, as well as Christmas crafts and a visit to Sandringham. Check out these pages: Social events 2015 and early 2016
Never seen a ballet? Now’s your chance!
On Saturday 19 December 2015, the Royal Opera House will open its doors for an exclusive performance of The Nutcracker by The Royal Ballet. Starting at 10am, members will have a unique opportunity to get ‘behind the scenes’ of the Opera House and learn all about the work that goes in to producing a ballet; from costumes preservation, stage make-up to actually meeting the ballet dancers and members of the orchestra.
This special opportunity has been kindly supported by The Helen Hamlyn Trust in memory of the late Paul Hamlyn; this trust gives thousands of families who have not previously been to the Royal Opera House the opportunity to enjoy ballet or opera at the famous Covent Garden theatre. For this reason, it is important to be aware that this offer is only for people who have not been able to experience a performance at the Royal Opera House before – please bear this in mind when registering for tickets. If members have previously booked tickets for a main stage performance at the Opera House, they will be politely declined access to this event.
This offer will be sent out to all WI’s in this month’s mailing.
We are conscious that the timescale for this event is very short, but we are sure you will agree that this will be a fabulous way to end the year of WI centenary celebrations!
Flyer to follow as soon as we receive further details. In the meantime, if you are interested, let us know by emailing: marketharboroughwi@gmail.com
Gemma’s perspective of the MHWI Carnival float
Market Harborough WI Celebrating 100 years in style!
Its Friday night, the sun has set and it has been raining on and off for the past two hours, I stand looking at our half-finished carnival float and I think what possessed me to take this on. I remember seeing the post months ago online, the possibility of making a carnival float for this year’s parade in Market Harborough, at the time It seemed easy, think of an idea, collect/make the items needed to decorate the float and set it up the day before, simple! Now as I clean the rain of my glasses for the fifth time I am starting to have my doubts but everyone around me is in high spirits and the music system has just blasted into life.
The market Harborough WI’s motto is ‘something old, something new’ and I seriously wanted to base the float on this because that is what we are we do everything from Tai Chi to Cocktails but never forgetting the tea and cakes which is at the heart of every WI meeting! I myself being one of the younger members at 23 I can say this WI really changed my perception of what the group actually was and I have never had so much fun since joining over 2 years ago. I have made some really great friends and was thrilled at the amount of them that wanted to be a part of this celebration float
I spent a large percentage of Friday night (which I am sure several other ladies did as well) my mind whirling over every possible thing trying to make sure nothing had been forgotten, was that chair strapped down? Did I tape up that decoration? Where did the banners go? Has the rain stopped yet? And so on. Saturday morning and my alarm buzzing in my ear came all to quickly and at 7:30am I was back at the float finishing off from the night before the rain still ever present but it had the grace to hold off for a little while as we did the finishing touches. Then it was a mad dash to quickly get changed into our costumes and up to the judging, I arrived to see float after float all lined up along the road with people bustling around getting onto the trucks and getting everything ready, the judges came and went but I had no expectation of winning. Five minutes before we were about to set off everyone on our float suddenly starting cheering I turned around to hear someone shout to me ‘we’ve won’, after the whoops had subsided a little I found out we had actually won first place for our float! Nothing was going to dampen our sprits now as Pharrell Williams ‘Happy’ started playing over the speakers the parade set off.
It was great how all these amazing women came together to build this float, there were some stressful times but as the float was going round the town with everyone waving in their macs and umbrellas undeterred by the rain and all of us having an amazing time with ‘Girls just wanna have fun blasting out’ of the speakers it made it all worth it.
Thank you to all the members of the Market Harborough WI that made this float possible, the 13th June 2015 will be one of those years I will never forget.
Kate Addie at WI Centennial Fair next moth
With 4 weeks to go, Kate Adie will be joining the Centennial Fair in Harrogate on 5/6 September. Centennial Fair update
Tea and tents 2015
Clare Farquhar and Fiona Thompson enjoying Tea and Tents 2015
What have your President Clare Farquhar and Secretary Fiona Maxwell Thompson been up to now?! Tea & Tents 2015 was as much fun as last year. This year was bigger and better and Walesby Activity Centre that allowed more space and a wider range of activities.
The yarn bomb, We’re Not In Kansas Anymore, that depicted characters from The Wizard of Oz was STUNNING, especially the 3 sections of road supplied by MHWI! This year the yarn bomb was raising money for Daisy Change. This is the first WI to be set up in a mental health facility. They will be using the installation at a charity event to raise more funds. Then in October, the city of Bradford have asked to borrow the whole lot as part of their No Place Like Home event. Then to top it all, one of the campers happened to work at The National Textile Archive specifically looking after WI treasures, and they want to keep the yarn bomb and preserve it! They even want to take it on tour! Thanks to all MHWI ladies that contributed to road, especially Carmen, who I know loved joining it altogether!😉
Next year’s yarn bomb has already been decided upon as Discwoolled, which is celebrating the writing of Terry Pratchett. This is in tribute to Terry Pratchett and we hope to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research. As soon as we know any details we’ll let you know and we hope that MHWI will rise to the challenge!
The weekend was filled with lots of giggles, making and doing. It was a great event to see the true diversity of the members of the WI. This is a volunteer led event and lots of ladies shared their skills and ideas during workshops and seminars. There were sports events too, and though we didn’t join in, we’re keen to get the rules of Quidditch for Muggles, as it looked really good fun.
There were lots of ladies with flowers in their hair following a Flower Crown Workshop, and a few. funky “arm knitting” scarves could be spotted. Fiona and I got busy making lampshades. It was so much easier than I thought it would be, and as long as you have a helpful friend to give a hand it’s definitely worth a go. (Might just have a MHWI craft night coming on!) I also had a go at papercutting which I missed out on last year. Again this is great fun with quick results. (N.B. Craft night no.2).
There was knitting and crochet galore. Complete beginners to improvers classes. There were sessions on felting, braiding and zip flowers to name but a few. As well as crafting, Speakers Corner allowed ladies to share things close to their hearts for means of education, but also, being able to voice certain subjects in a safe and supportive environment. Fiona heard one lady sharing the story of her son who lives with epilepsy. Another woman talked about caring for her husband with Alzheimer’s. Others spoke of how they have set up WI’s such as Daisy Change mentioned above and in a women’s prison in Northern Ireland.
No WI event would be the same without tea and jam and there was an abundance of both. Sue Foster from Stanwick WI had organised a tea party that was sponsored by Yorkshire Tea, Waitrose and a cream company that I currently do not have to hand! She organised afternoon tea and scones for 2 days. On top of that she also led a jam making workshop, and let us tell you, that woman knows how to make jam!!
There were competitions aplenty. Make a camp blanket; make a bag out of a pair of trousers; poetry reading (won by Clare!); and of course the obligatory WI raffle with prizes donated by the ladies that had sold their wares at the Market Place for 2 hours on Saturday. Clare had a stall again this year and did really well!
Evenings had group events to join in with, a camp fire and then a quiz night. But the beauty of Tea and Tents is that you come and go as you please. Some ladies had organised their own Curry Night and another group had a beer swap, and, try as we might to find it, (apparently we walked past it twice) there was also a Gin Palace for a tasting or two!
We hope that this gives you some insight. It sells out quickly, but if you are interested in going next year we will keep you posted. Can’t recommend it enough, it’s just so much fun!
Grab a bargain at Denman College – book by Monday 27 July
Check out the latest offers and availability by Monday 27 July. Click to download the file.
Budding artists are asked to get painting
Check out details of 2 exciting WI painting competitions: topics are ‘Buildings’ and ‘An Historic Event’
Check out the latest news on some special events planned later this year at Denman College. There’s a craft fair in August and details of Christmas and New Year events.
Help pilot adult colouring books
Julie Angel has contacted National WI and offers members the chance to trial adult colouring books: ‘Having spoken to Joanna Rayner the Press and PR Officer for NFWI and explained our project we were advised we could approach regional groups with this exciting proposal.
‘We would love you to take part in testing our colouring books for adults. You may be aware that there is a buzz around adult colouring books. Last year they outsold cookery books in France and it looks likely that the UK is picking up this new trend. We think that we can do better than what is currently on sale at the moment, and have produced two books that are more challenging. To get this right we need focus groups to tell us if they like what we have done, if it too challenging, not interesting enough etc. We would not be asking you for anything apart from data which will collect in a convenient way for your members.
‘You are our ideal target audience and we would really love you to join us. We are being featured in a few articles in the press and we would love to explore where this new trend could go. Our aim is to have focus groups test a selection of pages throughout July and then we can feed back the data for a final edit on both books. We are joining the ‘Big Draw’ nationwide event in October and would be overjoyed if your members who loved the experience wanted to join in our adult version called ‘The Big Colour In’.
Outlines for colouring
‘I have attached a sample of the images that we would be sending to your group and if you wish to join us then I would send you copies in the post or send an email with the rest of the trial pages in so you could get started straight away. We will also be sending some groups the same pencils, the same five we used for all the drawings as we are undecided whether to include them in our adult range as we have in our Colouring Sketchbooks.’
Interested? Speak to a committee member at the July monthly meeting or email: marketharboroughwi@gmail.com
Market Harborough WI 