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8th March 2017
As a business started, and run by a woman, on International Women’s Day, it’s always important to look at the strong women- both today and of days gone by, that have shaped the world as we know it. Whilst today theres no limit to the inspirational women we can reference and quote, it’s interesting to look back through history and how they were empowered in a society which wasn’t as accepting of them as ours is today. Looking at a few Pre-Raphaelite women in particular, we look to discuss how they managed to be successful in their own right!
Christina Rossetti
Many will recognise Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s sister for her modelling in several of his most famous paintings, however outside of her brothers accomplishments, and not to be overshadowed by them, Christina is a hugely famous writer. Writing from 1842, she mostly imitated her famous poets and it wasn’t until 1847 she began her own style of work with experimentation of verse forms. At the age of 18, she published two poems, ‘Death’s Chill Between’ and ‘Heart’s Chill Between’ both of which appeared in Athenaeum in 1848. Under her pen-name ‘Ellen Alleyne’ she also began her public career in The Germ- a literary magazine which was published by the Pre-Raphaelites (edited by her other brother, William.)
Goblin Market and Other Poems is her famous collection and is the work she is best remembered for, which was published in 1862. The reviews placed her as the foremost female poet of the time. In the time from then, many critics have debated the title poem’s meaning, many see it as a commentary on Victorian gender roles and female agency- give it a read and see what you deem from the poem! Indeed it could be from personal experiences she encountered; from 1859- 1870, Rossetti was a volunteer worker at the St. Mary Magdalene ‘House of Charity’ based in Highgate. This charity worked as a refuge for former prostitutes which she felt passionate about- opposed to many issues in society before the time they were addressed, she very much opposed the exploration of girls in under-age prostitution. There was also feminist themes running through her poetry. Whilst many may think of Pre-Raphaelite women as simply those that posed for their brothers/friends and husbands paintings, Rossetti very much bucks the perceived image and shows that not only can a woman be an image of beauty, but work to become hugely successful- and remembered- in her own right, but also have time to work for the rights of others.
“Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes, work never begun.”- Christina Rossetti
May Morris
We’ve spoken recently about May Morris- but how could we leave her out of a post dedicated to women who were forward thinking and before their time! Aged just 23, May took over and ran the entire embroidery section of Morris & Co. after completing her studies at Kensington School of Design. It was from this point on that all designs were done by both her and John Henry Dearle- what a huge accomplishment at any time, but especially during this era when the vast majority of women did not work or weren’t taken seriously in the work place.
May also founded the Women’s Guild of Arts in 1907; remaining the president until 1935. May saw that there was an ‘Art Workers’ Guild’ for men, established in 1884, May pushed the boundaries and formed the women’s equivalent. Only from 1960 have women been allowed into the original Guild, however this fact alone shows that May was years ahead of the changing attitudes to gender equality- seeing she couldn’t be admitted into a society which were inspired by her fathers ideas and the Arts and Crafts Movement, she showed her determination by doing it herself!
When you think of Pre-Raphaelite women, you may immediately think of their pale skin and flowing tresses, both of which are focused on in literature. However- we’d challenge you to look further at these women and look into their successes- we know we’re sometimes guilty of it on this blog at giving a heavy focus on the men and their achievements, and we’re working on changing this; the women showed just as much talent, and in the Victorian era when the women were much more suppressed than today’s society, it’s hard to not be in awe of all they achieved!
Posted in News by Laura
It’s coming home! 🏴 To celebrate, take 15% off our website all weekend with code: HOME at checkout ⚽️ Hurry it ends Tuesday 🌿
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#williammorris #england #itscominghome⚽️ #britishbusiness #floralprint
The latest project, a little quilted jacket! ✨ Our William Morris Merton Blue cotton fabric is looking gorgeous, we’ll show you it when it’s finished ☺️ Remember if you’re quilting, our cotton fabric is perfect for the projects and we have lots of complimenting designs and colour ways within our range! 🪡
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#merton #quiltedjacket #quiltingfabric #quiltingfabrics #fabricstack
We’re often asked what the different weights of our fabrics are and what projects they’d be good for. These are our three different types of fabrics in our Brother Rabbit red colourway - cotton on the right, heavyweight in the middle and pvc on the left ✨ As you can see on the second photo, and as the name suggests, our heavyweight fabric has a thicker, heavier weave which makes it good for projects such as curtains and light upholstery 🪡 Our cotton fabric is perfect for quilting and projects such as dress making but honestly the amount of crafts that can be made out of them both are endless! 🫶🏻 Our pvc fabric is great to put straight on the table as it won’t fray so doesn’t need a hem and is easy to maintain as it’s wipe clean! All our fabrics are sold by the half metre and if you’d like a sample of any of our fabrics in any weight just let us know and we’ll get a free sample sent to you! 💌
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#williammorris #cottonfabric #quiltingfabric #curtainfabric #ukfabric
Our William Morris range is a gorgeous mix of colours and florals, which is your favourite? In some designs such as Strawberry Thief, Brother Rabbit, Willow Bough and Mallow we have different colour ways that we digitally print in the UK so check our website for the full range! 🫶🏻
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#williammorris #preraphaelite #quiltingfabric #fatquarters #britishbusiness
Perhaps the most famous Morris design, Strawberry Thief was registered in 1883, inspired by Morris watching the thrushes stealing strawberries from under his fruit nets at the beautiful @kelmscottmanor 🍓 It was printed using the indigo dye technique, which was labour intensive and first attempted in 1875 but not perfected for 8 years 🎨 We also print Strawberry Thief in a beautiful red 🫶🏻
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#strawberrythief #historicdesigns #britishdesign #kelmscottmanor
Gorgeous Golden Lily, designed in 1897, it’s been a timelessly popular design ever since but did you know that it really increased in popularity in the 1960s when the Beatles George Harrison wore a Golden Lily shirt? ✨
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#goldenlily #wmorris #georgeharrison #englishsummer #englishdesign
Daisy is a special one to many as it was the second ever design Morris created, in 1864, made up of repeating drawn Meadow Daisies 🌼
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#morrisandco #preraphaelite #preraphaelites #daisy #daisydesign
We print Willow Bough in this beautiful blue and also in green 🌿 First designed in 1887, it was first produced as a wallpaper design which May Morris, Williams daughter, used to decorate her bedroom before being adapted for fabric in 1895 when it was block printed in Merton Abbey 🌿
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#maymorris #mertonabbey #mertonabbeymills #willowbough
Trellis is a special design as it was the first wallpaper he designed for his company, Morris & Co. In 1864 🌿 It was inspired by the rose trellis in the garden of his stunning home @redhousent that he co designed with his friend and architect, Philip Webb
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#philipwebb #redhouse #trellis #rosetrellis
We print Mallow in a wine colourway and this beautiful forest green colour ✨ It was first printed in 1879 and used to hang in the wonderful Arts & Crafts home, @standennt in the Croxley bedroom 🫶🏻
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#a
you’ve got to make everything an event, including breakfast! 🥐
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On the table;
Willow Bough blue placemats- £38.99
Willow Bough blue napkins- £20.99 ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #willowbough #preraphaelites #floralhome
Have you seen our forest green colourways of Mallow and Brother Rabbit? 🌿 We brought them out last year and were so happy that they’re ever so popular with everyone 💚 This week we’ve also got a 10% discount running on our website with code: floralsummer 🌅
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #wmorris #williammorrisdesign #preraphaelite
Did you know all our fabrics are printed and all our products manufactured in the UK? 🤍 It’s important to us that our William Morris fabrics are all high quality and the printed colours all beautiful to ensure all his designs live on timelessly to a high standard 🇬🇧
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Products featured; our Daisy William Morris tea towel - £10.99 ✨
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#williammorris #wmorris #morris #floralteatowel #floralhome
A moment for the greens! 💚 Can you name all these beautiful green William Morris designs? 🌿 All digitally printed here in the UK 🇬🇧 The good thing seeing them all together is you can see which work together for a sewing project or quilt, or layered together for your next tablescape! 🫧
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #preraphaelites #floralfabrics
Did you know we do bundles of our fabric offcuts? 🌿 Perfect for sewer and quilters, they’re various sizes and designs and available on our Etsy and website - this is our latest “almost fat quarter” bundle that all are almost 50cm pieces, you could even make double sided cushions or anything! What would you create? 🪡🧵 (message us if you’d like a link to our bundles!🫧)
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#williammorris #fatquarters #fatquarterbundle #preraphaelite #quiltingcotton
With this hot weather upon us, if you’re like us and using it to get all your washing out and dry, we thought we’d tell you our washing guidelines! 🫧 We’d recommend folding your fabric face to face when in the wash (so pattern side to pattern side!) to protect the print and then wash at 30 degrees, hang on the line to dry! 🧺 All our fabrics are digitally printed in the UK and products manufactured in the UK 🇬🇧
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#williammorris #goldenlily #flowerscape #wmorris #preraphaelite
All our wonderful William Morris fabrics are digitally printed here in the UK, creating high quality print in incredible colour ways, if you’re quilting and crafting from our cotton and heavyweight cotton fabrics, we thought it’d be handy to have all the pattern repeats in an easy to save post ☺️
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#williammorris #craftingfabric #quiltingfabric #floralfabrics #patternfabric
Merton in blue is one of the most beautiful William Morris designs, a timeless blue and white, it was first designed in 1888!
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#williammorris #wmorris #morrisdesign #merton #preraphaelite
If you’d like a sample of Merton, just send us a message and we’ll get one sorted out for you!
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#williammorris #floralfabric #blueandwhite #blueandwhitefabric #tablescape
Have you seen Merton before? It’s so underrated as a Morris design we think! It was actually the first design that he printed on rotary screens under the name “Morris & Co.” After their rebrand from “Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.’” 🌿 We’re just appreciating it during peony season!
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#peony #peonyseason #morris #morrisandco #preraphaelites
Taking a closer look at beautiful Lily design, a timeless design Morris designed in 1874, if you’d like a sample of Lily, just let us know! 💌
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The table details;
Lily napkins- £16.99 for 4
Lily tablecloths- starting from £29.99 depending on size
Also mentioned;
Lily cotton by the half metre- £9.25
Lily heavyweight cotton by the half metre- £10.25
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#williammorris #wmorris #preraphaelites #lily #quiltingcotton
When cutting fabric stacks, we always wonder what is being made from them, we often get messages about quilts being stitched together with various tonal colours, curtains ready to be part of daily life or dresses being sewn to be worn to the next big event, so if you ever make anything from our fabrics- whether it be a huge project or a tiny one made of our scrap bundles, do let us know what you make! 🪡🧵
Can you name the designs within the photo? All sold by the half meter, £18.50 per metre of cotton, £20.50 per metre of heavyweight cotton 🫶🏻
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#williammorris #wmorris #morrisfabric #floralfabric #quiltingcotton
Putting the spotlight on Mallow Forest Green, we love this design so much it’s so effortlessly beautiful, it’s been admired in homes for more than 147 years since William Morris designed it ✨
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The table details;
Mallow napkins- £16.99
Mallow tablecloths- starting at £29.99 depending on size
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#williammorris #weddingtablescape #weddingtableflowers #preraphaelites #artsandcraftsmovement
Mid week tables require; a vase of gorgeous fresh flowers, as many sweet treats as you can get your hands on, and of course, a gorgeous tablecloth set- this Willow Bough blue is one of our all time favourite William Morris designs, it’s utterly timeless and so beautiful 🌿
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The table details;
Willow Bough blue napkins- £16.99
Willow Bough tablecloths- starting at £29.99 depending on size
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #willowbough #englishdesign #myfloralhome
A little update from us 🇬🇧
From 1st July, our product prices will be increasing due to continued rises in manufacturing and material costs.
We’ve worked hard to absorb these increases for as long as possible, but to continue providing the quality you expect from us, a small price adjustment is now necessary.
Every product we create is proudly printed and manufactured here in the UK, using high-quality materials and processes that ensure a finish we’re proud of. Our fabrics are all digitally printed to give a crisp finish.
If you’ve been thinking about placing an order, now is the perfect time — all orders placed before 1st July will be at our current prices.
To thank you for your support, we’re offering an exclusive discount before the new prices take effect.
Use code: thankyou
Enjoy 10% off your order until 14th June
This is the perfect opportunity to place your order at current prices and enjoy an additional saving before the increase.
Thank you for supporting a UK small business and for choosing quality. We truly appreciate every order ❤️
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#uksmallbiz #madeintheuk #williammorris #fabricstore #floralfabric
Aren’t these the most gorgeous blooms!! 🫶🏻 This is our William Morris Compton design and it’s so underrated as a design, it’s beautiful year round because all the different details can be brought out of it, pair it with springtime greens to pop the green tones or autumnal burnt oranges during the colder months, it’s so versatile! ✨ Swipe to see my little photoshoot gatecrasher 😂
All our products are digitally printed and manufactured in the UK 🇬🇧
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #compton #artsandcraftsmovement #cottagecorekitchen
Bringing nature indoors, we our gorgeous oven gloves thrown over the cooker- a chic way to make something practical beautiful too! 🫶🏻
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#williammorrisfabric #williammorris #wmorris #floralkitchen #pimpernel
Gorgeous postbox 📮 If you’d like a free sample of any of our fabrics just send us a message and we’ll get them sent out to you 💌 If you’re ordering from abroad, we will always take the parcel to the post office to make sure we’re comparing different postage methods to get the best postage prices for you- we’re wanting to spread the floral goodness global! Today I pottered to the post office to send a lovely pvc apron to Australia which is amazing that Morris is well known world wide! 🐨🦘🇦🇺
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #smallukbusiness #fabricdesign #postboxesofinstagram
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