Behind the Design: Blackberry Thrush

By: Bonnie Christine

Story Adapted From Pattern Magazine – Volume 5

Pattern Magazine is Bonnie Christine's quarterly print and digital publication for surface pattern designers, artists, and creative entrepreneurs who believe that how you live shapes what you make. This story first appeared in Volume 5, Gathering Sunshine, the summer 2026 issue.

“Her entire yard was a garden.”

My grandmother, Marrell, was sophisticated and southern. She wore a long sleeve denim shirt with a wide-brimmed hat while gardening. And her garden was glorious.

It wasn’t a proper garden with a picket fence framing off part of the yard. Oh no, the entire yard was blooming with beauty: hundreds of varieties of flowers in full array under an orchard of apple trees. My favorite was the foxglove, stalks of trumpeted blooms with bumblebees and butterflies fluttering about them.

Her entire yard was a flower garden, planned so something was always in color at all times.

I watched my grandmother carefully as we worked in the soil together. She taught me what she knew; I asked questions that came to mind.

And under the pergola with climbing wisteria, a fragrant curtain of lavender blooms, I learned how to garden like my grandmother. Gardening is a passed-on knowledge, not something you inherit. It is a gift learned, and I am still learning each day.

Tucked just behind the wisteria, spanning the entire length of my grandmother’s garden, grew the most enormous, delicious blackberries.

If I close my eyes, I can still taste them. My grandmother is the one who taught me: the best place to go when you need a snack is right outside. And, as I grow her very same blackberries in my own garden now, I still sneak outside for a handful. It reminds me of her each time.

One of the very first patterns I ever designed came from the memory of my grandmother, Marrell, and her garden in bloom.

The motifs and color swatches, the details, take me back to her yard, planting bulbs alongside her. I hold this pattern, and I am in her kitchen, sharing a cup of tea with a ginger snap, or soaking in the sunshine as she trims and prunes with care.

This pattern is a thank you for our garden days together, and it’s aptly named Blackberry Thrush.

"Blackberry Thrush" by Bonnie Christine

Wanting More?

This story comes from Volume 5 of Pattern Magazine, Gathering Sunshine. The whole summer issue, with every story and photograph, is at bonniechristine.com/patternmagazine. You can see the Blackberry Thrush pattern in Bonnie’s portfolio.