QKO

According to fabric industry blurbs, this is supposed to be "The Year of the Taupe."

Taupe fabrics, a Japanese style of fabrics featuring a soft color palette and typically high quality screen-printed goods and finish have come on to the radar screen outside Japan in the last several years. Lots of people are discovering them and using them to create beautiful quilts and other projects.

So, what's your take on taupes? Love them? Hate them? Indifferent? Use them? Never heard of them?

Comments?

alleyoop1

Taupe - kind of bland. I prefer colors that are found in historic quilts and 30's quilts. Also like fabric that looks tea dyed. Don't care for Japanese fabrics or turquoise/red combos, or lime green which seem popular now. I'm more of a traditionalist when it comes to fabrics.

Tartan

I am not a huge fan of taupe but it will make good neutrals to go along with my stash fabrics.

DogHouseMom

It's OK as a complement ... but I don't want an abundance of taupe. I would rather have grey.

BellaBoo

I bought a BOM last year using Japanese Taupe for all the fabrics. Expensive but oh the fabric is so nice! I didn't know Japanese Taupe came is so many different prints; solids, plaids, floral. It's beautiful. Not bland at all. It has a lot of texture in the fabric. The BOM is the quilt on the cover of Past & Present - My Quilting Life- Yoko Saito. Beautiful book. The quilt is made from all Japanese Taupes. [ATTACH=CONFIG]392879[/ATTACH][h=1][/h]

QKO

Remember - we're talking about taupes, which are a style of fabric, not the color taupe.

Nice quilt, Bella!

frustratedquilter40

I love the Japenese Taupes have one of the original collection of 35 fat quarters and yardage for backind , bindind and borders. But can not bring myself to cut into it is so beautiful.

Peckish

I love them too. They're also known as daiwabo fabrics. There are quite a few Japanese quilters who have made absolutely stunning quilts using nothing but daiwabo taupes. I keep hoping the American quilt magazines will start featuring these types of quilts.

http://pinterest.com/peggi/japanese-quilting/

MTS

Love lovelovelove!!!
I have boxes of Daiwabos - still looking for the perfect (and worthy) project.

Years ago I could never understand why the Japanese "beige" quilts were so gorgeous, and yet similar beige American quilts bored me to tears.

And then I discovered "taupe" - and a world of difference.
I have more shades of taupe then I do of blues.
And the Japanese are just masters at using these fabrics.


There are a few US shops that carry the real stuff, and a number more that carry more commercial lines, like Serenity by EESchenck.

They're sort of like 30's repro fabrics.
Having just a few bolts in the shop doesn't really sell.
The shop owner needs to commit.
Because the fans of these fabrics want variety.
And they'll buy them all.
So I understand why most shops don't stock them at all.

And certainly these days the trend is to prepackged collections - ugh! that all look the same and seem to fly out the door where they can be all made into the same exact d9p.

So I buy a lot from Japan and a few select online sites.

MTS

Here are some of my favorite vendors:
http://www.kallistiquilts.com/

This site used to have a much larger selection:
http://pinwheels.com/cgi-bin/Store/store.cgi?cart_id=8661757.IP76.109.55.181IP.4123.s 0&lastmenu=&product=DaiwaboBasics

https://www.oneworldfabrics.com

There are some European shops that larger selections - they're a big deal over there.

And equilter has a fairly decent selection of the Serenity prints.
http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bin/webc...eyword=daiwabo


@BellaBoo- that BOM is gorgeous!