You are here  >  Products [ Show / Hide Content ]   [ Normal Fonts ]   [ Extra Large Fonts ]

BQFW is a small fabric workshop printing short runs of House design fabrics which are sold by the metre and Artist fabrics which may be sold as one-off pieces, or by the metre as available from lengths already printed. Please enquire. Longer lengths can be printed to order (but not as exact matches to previous printings!).

Here we show fabrics – one off single pieces and designs printed on a roll – in which BQFW has had a hand, perhaps as co-designer or print assistant, mentor or facilitator.
Printed fabrics have traditionally been categorised as Geometric, Floral, Ethnic and Conversational, but you may find here a bit of subversion with subject matter or trespassing with techniques!

Elephant cushions 3 for £75
single £30
plus £5 per cushion
with duck feather pad
(all prices inc. p&p)

Three gifts bearing elephants!

A short print run of 72 cushions bearing elephants in 3 different colours and decorative patterns. Select Zoom Image button or click on elephant for the full range.

Buy one elephant, or a trio!

We are also able to provide a limited run of 3 of each colour printed on heavy Chapa silk at £35 each or £90 for three.

Fabric Cotton duck in white or cream
Size 42cm x 42cm
Print type Screen
Choose Fabric/Colour

Fleet footed squirrels £70
/ m

Design Clare Satow Printed with Steve Conlan and Richard Tomlinson

A lively, flowing design of squirrels leaping through branches. In part this design was inspired by a passage in a book by WJ Palmer, called 'The Tyne and its tributaries' (1882) referring to the Derwent valley:
“So densely wooded is the valley from end to end, as to have given rise to a saying, once current, that a squirrel might travel from Axwell Park, near the mouth (of the Derwent) to Shotley Bridge, ten or twelve miles distant, without touching the ground”.
Fabric/Width Unbleached Chapa silk 132cm
Pattern repeat 80cm
Print length 7m
Print type Screen

Bullfinch £70
/ m

Design: Clare Satow Printed with Jane Gower 2010

This design began life as a teatowel after observing a Bullfinch in a blackthorn bush when the blossom was open but there were no leaves. The peachy red breast looked like a ripe fruit in the otherwise stark and cold setting.

The suggestion that it would look good printed as a length came from Michelle le Maitre, who particularly liked the isolation of the bird. In order not to clutter the design with a regularly positioned bullfinch, the bird stencil was placed occasionally,removed, and then replaced, during the printing. This kind of intervention is one of the pleasures that is possible when printing with a cut paper stencil.
Fabric/Width Chapa silk 132cm
Repeat 61cm
Print length 7.5m
Print type Screen

Grasses £60
/ m

Design by Lucy Balogh  Printed with Clare Satow

Lucy, who did once work in a florist's shop in Lancaster, has a good eye for the curve and  poise of flowers and  cuts a finer stencil for a flower stem than looks possible to print. One summer's day in July 2008 she went sketching along the Tyne riverbank. From the  pages of drawings and samples of grasses that came back with her this design grew, through many stages and printings.

Though spare and simple, the pattern picks out a few recognisable structures of stem and leaf which, when laid down, are light and airy, with a ripple running through. The greens of July are mixed with the crimson and brown of autumn creeping in through August.
Fabric/Width Slubby silk 128cm
Repeat 30cm
Print length 10m
Print type Screen

Summer Picnic £75
/ m

Two colour: Red and Blue

This design has always started off in a red and blue that contrast well, but is now beginning to spread with other colours and motifs colonising the spaces between the leafy roundels. This quite changes the character of the design and once off the established colour path, there's no going back! Sometimes it is the final colour that , at last, pulls everything together as a coherent pattern.
Fabric/Width Red Edge linen 130cm
Print length Reprinted to order
Print type Screen

Summer Picnic £75
/ m

Full colour

See above for further details

Fabric/Width Cotton sateen (light) 140cm
Print length 10m
Print type Screen

Blue Lozenge £750
single item
The elements and techniques used to build up a gentle , slightly hazy patterned surface on this 2m piece of silk are very simple. It is named after the shape of the cut paper stencil – 7 stripes of different lengths forming a lozenge. This was printed in one direction and then overprinted at a 90 degree angle giving a plaid effect to the crossover at the centre of the print. A paler shade of blue filled in the triangles left between the squared centres and a vegetable block added colour to the central grid. The entire surface was then embroidered with simple running stitches. The result was quite unexpected!
Fabric/width/length Chapa silk 130cm x 200cm
Print type screen and block with embroidery

Link to Tea Towels
© Bill Quay Fabric Workshop Design by Michael Mortimer | Photography by Steve Conlan