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28th July 2014
Strawberry Thief is one of William Morris’s most well known repeat design. The process of printing it in 1883 meant it would have taken days to complete the process, and therefore it was one of Morris & Co.’s most expensive cottons. Despite the retail cost, it was one of Morris’s most commercially successful prints.
Morris designed the fabric whilst at his country home, Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire. His inspiration was watching the thrushes steal the strawberries out of his garden which is where the name derives from.
To print the pattern Morris decided to use a method called indigo- discharge, which he admired as a form of printing. He attempted it first in 1875, but did not manage to produce it in a high quality way until he moved, in 1883, to his factory at Merton Abbey Mills. Strawberry Thief was the first design using the technique where the red (alizarin dye) and yellow (weld) were added to the basic blue and white. This means, at the time of print, this was a really modern fabric, with complex and intricate designs within the fabric, which today still look beautiful.
Check out our range of strawberry thief design products- including table cloths, place mats, napkins, aprons and bags!
Posted in William Morris by Laura
Our beautiful new colourway in Brother Rabbit is now in stock in tablecloths and napkins- perfect for not only your Christmas tables but also year round 🎄🔔 Isn’t it stunning ✨
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Lovely meeting so many Morris fans today at the shopping event at @ruddingparkhotel 🫶🏻 Lost count of the amount of times I said “they’re all licensed Morris designs printed and manufactured in the UK!” 🇬🇧
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Come and see us! We’re at the @ruddingparkhotel pop up shopping event tomorrow in beautiful Harrogate 🥰 it’s from 12pm- 8pm and we’ll be having some special offers going on ✨ perfect to get your Christmas shopping started it’s in aid of @mysaintmichaels and @rnli 🫶🏻
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisprint #design #popup #popupmarket #rnli #brotherrabbit #fatquarter #fatquartershop #uksmallbiz #christmasgifts
Merton is back 🫶🏻 Gorgeous blue and white, we are such big fans of this on the table 🎀
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisprint #wmorris #preraphaelite #merton #preraphaelite #madeintheuk #madeinbritain #smallbusiness
Lighting sparklers in the kitchen so you know Willow Bough green tablecloths and pvc fabric are back in stock 🎇 We hope you have a wonderful bonfire night tomorrow 🎆 featured; our Willow Bough green pvc wipe clean fabric - perfect for when you create a mess on the table, but please don’t light sparklers in your home we had a lapse of health and safety thought 🫶🏻
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Cut a beautiful fabric stack today for an order - can you name all the designs? 🪩
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Hands up if you love our new colour way - Mallow Forest Green ✨
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Consistently treating ourselves this time of year 👻 Featured design; our licensed William Morris Compton 🫶🏻
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#williammorris #cosyvibes #cosylivingroom #floralhomewares #floralhome #halloweentreats #halloween2025 #ghost #wmorris #compton
A Halloween table but we made it more us- less scariness and more florals, candles and disco balls 🪩 Featuring our pvc wipe clean Strawberry Thief tablecloth (the handiest tablecloth ever) and Compton napkins - what do you think to mix and match patterns? 👻
Beautiful Autumnal mugs by @emma_bridgewater 🎃
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#williammorris #wmorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabrics #strawberrythief #floraltable #halloweentable #halloweentablescape #discoballs #discoballtablescape #tablescape #tablescapestyling #emmabridgewater #emmabridgewaterfan #emmabridgewateraddict #autumn
📣 A NEW COLOURWAY! 📣 We are now printing Brother Rabbit in beautiful Forest Green 🌲 A gorgeous design, we absolutely love our new colour way, a dark green it looks so beautiful 🫶🏻
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An alternative to carving a pumpkin is a flower arrangement in a pumpkin! 🎃 How autumnal does it look 🍂
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#autumn #autumnstyle #autumnflowers🍁🍂❤️ #autumnflowers #autumndecorations #wmorris #williammorris #williammorrisdesign #florals
Special moments are often celebrated round the table, so make sure that table looks beautiful 🫶🏻 This is our licensed William Morris Compton design, we digitally print and manufacture all our products in the UK, bringing quality products to your home 🇬🇧 We hope you enjoy supporting small businesses 🫶🏻
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#ukmanufacturing #ukmanufacturer #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #williammorris #wmorris #roundthetable #floraltable #myfloralday #floralday #floralprint
✨ WIN!✨ We’re all about treats and no tricks this October 🎃 Win this bundle of our popular William Morris Pimpernel Green products: an oven glove, tea towel and cotton apron ✨ To Win, just like this post, tell us your favourite William Morris design in the comments and make sure you’re following us - we’ll pick our winner on the 31st! 🎃 (tag your friends for an extra entry!) ✨
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Trends may come and go, but a beautiful print — whether it’s one of our own original florals or a classic William Morris design — will always be in style 🫶 This is our Jean design that we sell as fabric by the meter and fat quarters 🪡 It’s an exclusive design from our French archive so you won’t find it elsewhere! Beautiful on it’s own or in a quilt complimenting other colours, we absolutely adore this pattern 💕
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We’ve waited an entire year for this photo to be back on our wall calendar - little Bertie pumpkin 🧡 Will we be recreating this photo this year? Perhaps! (Watch this space for a Christmas themed Bertie!) 🎃 Design featured: Compton 🤎
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One talent we do possess is being able to theme a napkin fold to any season. Behold; the napkin pumpkin 🎃 Let us know if you’d like a video on how to do this fold for your autumn and Halloween tables 🎃🍂
Design featured; Compton our licensed William Morris design 🍂
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We absolutely love seeing our fabrics and products in your homes 🫶🏻 This picture of our Daisy ovenglove sent by Hannah, the colours look perfect in her kitchen ✨ Be sure to tag us in your photos of our products and fabrics or, message them to us - we’d love to see and share them 🥰
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#williammorris #wmorris #ovengloves #kitchenessentials #bakinglove #homestyle #madeintheuk🇬🇧 #textiledesigns #artsandcraftsmovement #daisy #englishcountrystyle #englishcountryhome
Our simple autumn tablescape 🍂 our Morris designs have been timeless for over a century, bringing art into everyday life, so we love taking them from season to season using different items to dress them to suit the season 🕯️ For autumn we added simple candles and florals with pumpkins and some velvet bows 🕯️Plus some little ghosts from @sainsburys as a little treat for everyone 👻
On the table; our licensed Strawberry Thief red 🫶🏻
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#halloweentable #halloweentablescape #autumntable #autumntablesetting #williammorris #williammorrisdesign #wmorris #interiordecor #interiordecor #cottagekitchen #cottagekitchenstyle #preraphaelite #florallife #florallifestyle
Spills? Crumbs? Not a problem when you’ve got a pvc tablecloth on the table - just wipe it clean👌🏼 We have our pvc fabrics in stock in a range of our licensed William Morris designs - what’s your favourite design? 🫶🏻
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Beautiful Merton blue is back! 🫶🏻 Isn’t it so gorgeous- blue and white florals forever have our hearts, we’ve not printed Merton in a while and missed it within our collection so we absolutely had to bring it back ✨ Digitally printed in the UK as always 🪡
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