29th August 2020
Fancy taking a closer look at some of our William Morris designs? Then we’re so glad you’re here! There’s a lot of Morris designs within our collection so we’d invite you to take a look through them all to pick your favourite, but we thought we’d highlight a few in this blog.
You can see our swing tickets on each photo. It’s how we label each William Morris fabric order we send out and features a little information on each design. You can always find more information on each product category page if you wanted to read more about the design. It’s what’s nice about William Morris designs isn’t it, that they all have such a rich past and story.
Golden Lily was designed in 1897, one of our best loved designs by William Morris. Isn’t it so beautiful with intertwining tulips, lilies and leaves. Adding a pop of colour to your home, we love Golden Lily for brightening up spaces. Just by adding a tablecloth or kitchen accessory, it can really change how bright a room feels!
Brother Rabbit we have in both Red and Blue colour ways so that you can enjoy them in your favourite colour. First produced at Merton Abbey by Morris, it was inspired by a book Morris used to read to his daughters, Jenny and May. There was a character it was named after in, “Uncle Remus, His song and His Sayings” (1881) by J.C. Harris. It’s also known as Brer Rabbit.
Inspired by nature, as many of Morris’ designs were, the birds and rabbits within were drawn by Philip Webb, his lifelong friend and colleague.
This is Compton, commissioned for Mr Lawrence Hodson’s Compton Hall in Wolverhampton. Morris was redesigning the interior for Compton Hall and we’re so glad that we get to share that commission! Compton was actually the last design Morris designed before his death that same year. His cause of death given by his physician of, “simply being William Morris, and having done more work than most ten men.”
Compton originally required two sets of wood blocks to print all 28 colours due to the large vertical repeating patterns. It’s since been scaled down and adapted for a wider audience.
Pimpernel is another design we have in multiple colour ways, in both green and in cream. The design was first produced in 1876 and named after the small flowers within the design rather than the large poppies which dominate it.
Pimpernel can be seen in the Billiard Room at Wightwick Manor and is incredibly beautiful there if you ever get the chance to visit.
One of William Morris’ most popular designs, we have Strawberry Thief in both red and blue colour ways. First produced in 1883, it was a triumph for Morris as it marked the perfecting of the indigo-discharge technique of printing at Merton Abbey. We have lots of blogs about the Indigo-Dye method of printing if you’d like to learn more!
Strawberry Thief was inspired by Morris’s observations of the thrushes stealing the strawberries from under the fruit nets at Kelmscott Manor. His daughter May Morris spoke about 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!
Willow Bough is another design we have in multiple colours; blue and green. It’s one of our favourites, it really feels like you’re bringing nature indoors doesn’t it. May Morris used Willow Bough to decorate her bedroom as her wallpaper. It was then adapted for fabric in 1895, block printed in Merton Abbey.
May wrote about the design, “We were walking one day by our little stream that runs into the Thames and my father pointed out the detail and soon after the paper was done.”
We print and manufacture all our products within the United Kingdom. All our William Morris designs are licensed designs and are printed both size and colour wise to our own specifications. Within the UK and would like to see our fabric before you buy? Let us know and we can send you a sample swatch to you!
Posted in News by Laura
Our William Morris Lily design is back in stock! 🤍 A gorgeous design especially this spring/ summer it’s a timeless design we adore year after year 🌿
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Is it just us or does anyone else come across an old photo and get upset that the cake is now gone? 🍰
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisfabrics #strawberrythief #fabrics #teatowel #preraphaelite #emmabridgewater
Lay the table with us for Easter dinner 🐰 These rabbit napkin folds are so simple yet effective, will you give them a go this weekend? 🐣
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Us 🤝 simple napkin folding 🎀
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A really simple napkin fold for your Easter table! 🐣 We used a napkin ring but you could use ribbon or twine, whatever you’ve got! 🐰
Just fold the napkin into a triangle and roll up from the point until you can fold it in half to make the ears 🐇 You could put a little creme egg in there as an extra treat 🤎
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#napkinart #napkinfolding #napkinfolding #williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabrics #eastertable #eastertablescape #fabrics #easter2025🐰🐥☀️🍹
Hopping into Easter week with a fab 10% off our website, just use code: EASTER on our website 🐣
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Have you seen our new remnants and bundle section on our website? 🪡 Perfect for quilting, sewing and crafting, they’re all in varying sizes and we’ll keep it constantly updated 🧵
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Layering florals on florals this Spring 🪻🌷
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The start of the Easter tablescapes this weekend 🐣 We cant resist a little rabbit napkin, so easy and so effective we can post a reel on how to do the napkin fold! 🐰 This is our pvc fabric in William Morris Brother Rabbit red which is perfect for on the table as it simply wipes clean so isn’t an issue for any spills 🧼
We know that seasonal tablescapes whilst looking amazing can often seem really expensive on Instagram so we wanted to prove that with a simple napkin fold and a few little inexpensive decor bits it can be wonderfully seasonal yet affordable and used every year - the carrots are from @poundland and the cute little sheep are from @sainsburys 🐑
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A gorgeous spring day today spent in the garden, anyone else unable to spend a day without a pot of mini eggs nearby? 🐣 Our pvc fabric is perfect for garden tables, a simple wipe clean and it’s ready for outdoor meals - just make sure to not leave it outside in the rain! ☔️☀️ On the table today is our William Morris Compton pvc, a year- round fave of ours 🤎
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #compton #springgarden #springgardening #springtime #springsunshine☀️ #labrador #englishlab #lablife #magnolia #magnoliatree #magnoliatreesinbloom🌸🌸🌸
Spring has truly sprung this week and we’re looking forward to Easter 🐣 Our William Morris Daisy was looking gorgeous on the table with a little Easter treat 🐰
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#napkinart #easteregg #easterdecor #williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #floralfabric #printedintheuk #preraphaelite #artandcraftsmovement
One of the crafters among us couldn’t help but steal some of our new designs from work to create a gorgeous quilted bag from all our original designs to take to Chicago with them on holiday 🤍 For all of us back home in Yorkshire we’re a little jealous seeing all the holiday snaps of the bag round the city! ✨ All these designs are now available on our website 🥰
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It’s back in stock!! 🍓 Our cotton Strawberry Thief blue licensed William Morris design is now back in stock - and digitally printed 🌿 We hope you can tell how crisp the design is from this video, the details within the design are so clear in the digital print which is fabulous becuase there’s so many beautiful details within all Morris designs 🎨
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The colours of Compton 😍 did you know some of our designs are now digitally printed? 🤎 digital print gives top quality printing design with a really crisp finish that brings to life the whole design and its details, of course, we’re still printing in the UK 🇬🇧
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Pack an order with us of our new quilting fabrics 🌿 These are all our exclusive designs that are now available on our website, and each beautiful design has been faithfully resorted from our French archive, we wonder what they’ll be made into 🤍
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A tea towel hanging in the kitchen, bringing floral magic easily into the home 🌿 Can you believe William Morris designed Willow Bough in 1887? It’s such a timeless design we love imagining how many people throughout the years have chosen to have it decorating their homes 🤍
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Use code: birthday for 20% off our entire website 🌿 Includes our fabulous fabric by the half metre, tablewear & kitchenware 🤍
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We’re excited to announce our new range of fabrics, perfect for quilting 🪡 they are all from our exclusive French archive which dates from the late 1800s-early 1900s ⚜️ With a new range we were chatting about what to name each design, so as a female founded and run business, we decided to name them after some important women in our lives 🤍 We’re digitally printing this fabric so it’s amazing quality, but there’s limited stock of each design so let us know which designs you love ☺️
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Waiting patiently for peony season… 🫶🏻
On the table; our William Morris Willow Bough 🌿
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Why wouldn’t we celebrate William Morris’ birthday with one of our biggest sales of the year! Hurry, it’s tonight and tomorrow only, take 20% off everything on our website with code; BIRTHDAY 🌿
Born on this day in 1834, William Morris was an incredible talent. His designs are as timeless and popular today as ever, so long after they were designed 🎨 He also was a poet, writer and socialist activist who was involved in the arts and crafts movement and worked hard to keep traditional British textiles, he opened his own mill, Merton Abbey Mills 🌿 there’s so many interesting aspects of his life that he seemed to live many lives at once, when you’re that talented it must be hard to pick just one passion! 🌿 Happy Birthday William, thank you for all the stunning designs we print here in the UK just as he was passionate about all those years ago! 🇬🇧
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