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William Morris Strawberry Thief Red

Strawberry Thief is another of our licensed William Morris design that was first produced in 1883. It marked a triumph for Morris as it was produced as he perfected the indigo-discharge technique of printing at Merton Abbey. We also have Strawberry Thief Blue within our collection.

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The design was inspired by William Morris's observation of the thrushes under the strawberry nets at Kelmscott Manor. May Morris conjured up this scene when speaking of the design, "You can imagine my Father going out in the early morning and watching the rascally thrushes at work on the fruit beds and telling the fanned who growls ‘I'd like to wring their necks!' that no bird in the garden must be touched. There were certainly more birds than strawberries in spite of attempts at protection. And the walls of the little dining-room are hung with this note of the June garden and the little lords of it." What a lovely insight into the Morris family life!

Today, we print and manufacture all our products in the United Kingdom. Back when Morris was producing his designs, it was a long process taking three days to prepare. It had to be really accurate.

First the cloth was dyed all over in an indigo vat, for a uniform blue colour to be washed all over the fabric, it was then printed with a bleaching reagent- this would then reduce the colour as much as required to achieve the desired base colour. Mordants are applied onto the bleached parts and the cloth was then completely immersed in madder vat in order to give the proper tint. The excess colour is then cleaned off and, to set the fabric so it won't run, the colours are set at boiling point by passing the fabric through soap. The cloth was then laid outside with the printed side face up so the white of the design can be purified- as you can tell, a laborious job! Today, as mentioned, we use a modern flat bed printing technique; though like Morris, still print in the United Kingdom.

Our products are both printed and manufactured in the United Kingdom, and are licensed designs by William Morris, printed both size and colour-wise to our own specifications to best suit our products.

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Fabric Remnant 78 x 73cm William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Cotton Fabric
Fabric Remnant 78 x 73cm William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Cotton Fabric
£8.00
Fabric Remnant 127 x 47cm William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Cotton Fabric
Fabric Remnant 127 x 47cm William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Cotton Fabric
£7.50
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Single Placemat Pack
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Single Placemat Pack
£8.00
Fabric Remnant 132 x 72cm William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Cotton Fabric
Fabric Remnant 132 x 72cm William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Cotton Fabric
£9.00
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Cotton Heavyweight Drill 0.5m Fabric Piece
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Cotton Heavyweight Drill 0.5m Fabric Piece
£7.00
SALE – 50m Roll Licensed William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Flat Bias Binding
SALE – 50m Roll Licensed William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Flat Bias Binding
Original price was: £150.00.Current price is: £14.00.
SALE – By the Metre Licensed William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Flat Bias Binding
SALE – By the Metre Licensed William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Flat Bias Binding
Original price was: £3.00.Current price is: £1.50.
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Dog Bandana Large/ XL
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Dog Bandana Large/ XL
£9.50
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Fat Quarter
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Fat Quarter
£5.00
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Pvc / Oilcloth Floral Wipe Clean Apron
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Pvc / Oilcloth Floral Wipe Clean Apron
£15.99
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Cotton Drill Floral Apron
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Cotton Drill Floral Apron
£15.99
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief 100% Cotton Floral Tea Towel
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief 100% Cotton Floral Tea Towel
£8.99
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Pack Of 4 Cotton Napkins
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Pack Of 4 Cotton Napkins
£16.99
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief 132 x 178 Cotton Floral Tablecloth
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief 132 x 178 Cotton Floral Tablecloth
£32.99
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief 132 x 229 Cotton Floral Tablecloth
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief 132 x 229 Cotton Floral Tablecloth
£36.99
Licensed William Morris Red Strawberry Thief 100% Cotton Fabric By The Half Metre
Licensed William Morris Red Strawberry Thief 100% Cotton Fabric By The Half Metre
From: £9.25
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief 100%  Heavy Cotton Floral Fabric By The Half Metre
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief 100% Heavy Cotton Floral Fabric By The Half Metre
From: £10.25
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Table Runner 36cm wide x 146cm long
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief Table Runner 36cm wide x 146cm long
£18.00
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief 37mm Flat Floral Bias Binding By The Metre.
William Morris Red Strawberry Thief 37mm Flat Floral Bias Binding By The Metre.
From: £3.00
The soundtrack to our day- our fabric cutter! 🎼 If you ever order fabric from us this is how we get our cuts so straight ☺️ Did you know that we sell our fabrics by the half meter, so however big or small your project is, we’ve got fabric for you ☺️ This is our gorgeous William Morris Strawberry Thief blue design, it’s very often on our cutting table as it’s so popular! Do you prefer it in red or in blue? 🍓 
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#williammorris #fabricbytheyard #fabricbymeter #floralfabric #ukfabric
Replacing all normal eggs with chocolate ones for the foreseeable future 🐣 Brother Rabbit Green on the table always looks so beautiful, we just love this new colour way in this gorgeous William Morris design ✨
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#williammorris #wmorris #eastertable #floraltable #eastertablescape
Gorgeous flowers this weekend 🤍 We can’t get over the beautiful tulips 🌷 Brother Rabbit blue on the table, do you prefer it in the blue, red or green? 🌿
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#williammorris #wmorris #preraphaelites #flowerpowerfabric #flowers
A moment for the greens 🌿 We know sometimes it’s hard imagining different designs together for projects whether you’re quilting with tonal colours or mix matching curtains and cushions, the things you can do with our William Morris fabrics are endless, so seeing them together you can see how beautifully they pair together ✨ We’ll post the blues next so you can see them together too! 🤍 Message us if you’d like a sample of anything, we send them free in the UK 📮
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabrics #quiltingfabric #ukfabric
Back in stock alert! ✨ All sizes of our gorgeous William Morris blue Strawberry Thief tablecloths & napkins 🌿 Sometimes the easiest napkin folds are the most effective (we have no bias towards this being our favourite just because it contains a chocolate egg… promise…) 🐰 
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#williammorris #wmorris #strawberrythief #preraphaelites #eastertablescape
Some new fabric bundles are now uploaded on our Etsy! ✨ We’ll post the link to our stories to them but some, like in the picture are almost fat quarters, perfect for quilting and crafting, and some are proper scrap bundles full of various sizes and designs, wonderful for crafting- we always wonder what everyone will create from them 🪡 They get rave reviews on our Etsy with crafters and quilters loving them for smaller projects 🥰
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#williammorrisfabric #williammorris #quiltingfabric #craftingfabric #sewingfabric
We’re so ready to see everyone’s beautiful Easter tablescapes! 🐣 our top necessities for an Easter table are multiple eggs and gorgeous flowers- the best combo! This William Morris Brother Rabbit tablecloth is the perfect addition to Easter with all those rabbits all over it! 🐰
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#williammorris #wmorris #preraphaelites #easter #eastertablescape
William Morris designs bring nature indoors with all the florals, birds and botanicals, so we brought some of our garden inside with some beautiful snowdrops on the table - anyone else excited about the garden waking up for spring? 🌱☀️
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#gardenflorals #gardensofengland #williammorris #wmorris #preraphaelites
Happy Pancake Day! 🥞 With the sun finally shining here in Yorkshire we had to bring some of it inside with some flowers from the garden- gorgeous snowdrops down the table ☀️ This tablecloth is the beautiful William Morris Trellis, our licensed William Morris design and always a favourite of ours 🫶🏻 Is anyone else starting on the Easter eggs in February? It’s not just us right… 😉
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#williammorris #gardenflowers #snowdropseason #burleighpottery #pancakeday