Who does not love a beautiful print? Here are three prints in the shop right now.
The top fabric is "Maia" by Arthur Sanderson & Sons. Besides being exquisitely beautiful, this fabric is in other ways nearly perfect. It is woven and printed so evenly that when cut the pattern drifted by only 1/4" over 3 repeats. It's a half-drop match which is always a scary challenge to cut! For this and any other linens or linen/cottons or.... well, actually, for almost any fabric..... we cut by pulling a thread to keep the grain even. This adds a couple of minutes to the cutting process but makes all the difference in the world in how the product hangs.
This print is turning into interlined drapery panels, hand-sewn, of course!
The bottom two are William Morris & Co fabrics: "Mary Isobel" on a superb linen, being made into interlined flat Roman shades, and "Honeysuckles" printed on fine cotton, featured on two little London shades. Need I say "hand-sewn, of course!"
I first knew of William Morris as an author, and only later did I learn of what I thought of as his "other" career as an artist and his role in the decorative arts. At an impressionable age I gobbled up "Well at the World's End" and saw the influence Morris had on two of my beloved 20th century writers, J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.
I spent a long time pretty sure I'd eventually run into Ralph of Upmeads and a horse named Silverfax on one of my hikes in the woods. Never did.
I've been immersed in 19th century English fiction lately- at the moment I'm 3/4 of the way through Dickens's "Little Dorrit"- so working with these classic English prints is a wonderful coincidental extension of my literary life.
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