Originally Posted by
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?
Quilters sometimes confuse the term "Taupe" with simply the gray/brown color we in the U.S. associate with it. In fact, Taupe is a genre of fabric very popular in Japan as well as many other Asian countries. The Japanese also refer to this genre as "Natural" fabrics. It is not merely gray/brown, but covers the entire color spectrum, and all values from off-white, to pure black.
Another misconception is equating the name Daiwabo with all Taupe fabrics. Daiwabo is one fabric producer in Japan, similar to RJR, Robert Kaufman, or Clothworks in the U.S. They produce Taupe lines, but also produce many other fabrics (currently not available in the U.S.). It is also common to hear people refer to the Serenity line of fabrics by EE Schenck Co. as Daiwabo. This is not the case. EE Schenck has contracted with Daiwabo to produce the artwork for these fabrics, so the designs are from Daiwabo, but the fabrics are printed on the same underlying gray goods as are other EE Schenck lines, such as Maywood. These are beautiful fabrics, and they are neither better or worse quality than true Japanese Taupe fabrics, merely different. Most of the real Japanese print fabrics are on a somewhat lighter, higher thread count fabric, very popular with the Japanese consumer for handwork and applique. Serenity is printed on a weight of fabric more popular in the U.S. for machine quilting.