Would Willy B Pleased?

Around here we are always asking, "What Would Willy Do?" in regard to the William Morris reproductions. You know, he wasn't big on patchwork quilts. He wasn't even big on printed cottons---thought woven tapestries the way to go.

But the fabrics are so pretty that it's silly to be snobbish. It's tempting to make decorative items for the home and wardrobe: the Arts & Crafts Home and the aesthetic wardrobe.

Recently I spent a week in a room with eight fellow seamstresses and a Layer Cake package of Morris & Company prints. As the week wore on the ideas got better.

Annette Chavez Fountain brought her hot glue gun and made quite a few pins using the Kafflower pattern by Julie Creus of LaTodera.  Note the tiny tomato pincushion in the center---not of Morris fabric but a nice contrast to the medium and dark prints. See the pattern here:

http://www.latodera.com/ 

Helen Hodak surprised me with a Scottie pillow from  2-1/2" cut squares. Willy probably would have preferred dark brown rick-rack for the collar but we were miles from a notions store.

It looks good in the Arts & Crafts Home, here dropped into an Original Morris Chair in Photoshop.

And I figured out how to make tomato pincushions, which I will explain with pattern in the next post.

Morning Star

Georgann Eglinski, 2009

Made from A Morris Garden reproduction collection.

And I have created a Pinterest Board with quilts made from William Morris reproduction prints, like the quilt above. Check it out here:
http://pinterest.com/materialculture/quilt-william-morris/

One chair: Two dogs