Morris Earthly Paradise: Quilt Market Introduction

Moda is introducing a new reproduction fabric line of mine at Quilt Market this week in Houston: Morris Earthly Paradise. 

"Our latest collection of William Morris reproductions is named Earthly Paradise for an epic poem written by the great designer. He had many talents, among them novelist, publisher and political activist.

"The fabrics in Earthly Paradise capture the Morris look with seven prints from old swatchbooks and catalogs. Graceful florals dating from 1874 to 1910 include some rarely seen prints by the master and his apprentices. Transplant Morris's Earthly Paradise into your own home with quilts and craftsman decoration inspired by a unique garden view."

Here are links to Moda's pages about the fabric and the project quilt:
http://www.modafabrics.com/fcc_morris-earthly.pdf
http://www.modafabrics.com/sell_sheet_morris_earthly_paradise.pdf

Morris Earthly Paradise

Project Sheet

Morris Earthly Paradise is scheduled for April, 2016, delivery to shops. For another project....

I plan to do a six-month quiltalong,

a Morris Hexathon, from May to October, 2016

on this blog. We'll make various hexies as

we discuss a little Morris and hexie history.

We'll be making hexagonal blocks

with 4" sides. 

More later!

Below are the prints in the new collection:

Compton is the signature print for the line.

We've printed the large floral in seven sophisticated colorways.

Compton was designed by John Henry Dearle in 1896.

Dearle took over as lead designer at Morris & Company

when Morris retired. 

Carnation #8336

A small floral, Carnation was designed in 1877 by

Kate Faulkner who worked for the firm in its earlier years.

Vine #8335

Vine is one of the more obscure Morris designs.

It was a woven wool tapestry. The only photo I've ever seen of Vine was in a black and white catalog dated 1910, which attributes it to William Morris (although Morris had died in 1896). 

The copy says it is a hand-woven tapestry in green, red or blue colouring.

We've added a gold.

I'm quite pleased with our transformation from

tapestry to cotton print.

Fritillary is  also a directional print, great for

borders and fussy cutting.

William Morris designed Fritillary for wallpaper

about 1885. Why is it called Fritillary instead of Sunflower?

If you look closely behind the sunflowers you can see the fritillaries---

 bell-shaped blooms with dotted coloring. Morris enjoyed

naming his prints for the minor players in the field.

#8332 Thistle is another J.H. Dearle design. The monochrome

was printed as wallpaper. The date is a little obscure on this pattern

so I put 1910, when it appeared in a catalog.

You can see there is quite a color range to this line.

#8334 Willow

Willow is a Morris signature pattern, produced as wallpaper in 1874. 

They also printed it as fabric later. 

The company did several variations on the willow leaves. This monochrome has small bubbles floating behind the leaves (you sometimes see the leaves without the circles but we left them in as it adds more texture to a classic design.) 

Chrysanthemum, a classic by the master,

1877

Seven colorways here showing the range.

Customers will see it in the spring.

Shop owners this week at Quilt Market.