Just to be clear, the fabrics on the Cherished Pieces website advertised at Daiwabo, are in fact all Serenity by EE Schenck in Portland, Oregon. They are beautiful pieces, and yes, they are less expensive than Daiwabo fabric from Japan.
-Steven

As a correction, Steven, EE Schenck's Serenity series is designed by Daiwabo, and also printed by Daiwabo under contract. The newer Serenity series, starting with Serenity 16, have been printed on a different stock than the 60 square quilter's cotton used for Maywood and other popular higher quality lines. Serenity 16 and newer are printed on a 75 square cotton, which is a lighter weight but finer fabric, pretty identical to what the traditional Daiwabo has been printed on.

A friend made a quilt from neutrals only. I thought it would be blah but it's really lovely. I saw some fabrics at quiltfest this year, various values of taupe, texture but basically reading as solids. One thing I didn't like was the Japanese fabrics were narrower than the standard 42-44 inches and expensive.

Hi Cindy,
The change to the more recent Serenity fabric is interesting to note. However, when comparing the Serenity 17 line with other current Japanese prints from Daiwabo, Lecien, Westex, and Olympus, the latter appear finer, a little lighter and silkier textured than the Serenity fabric. The only one I have here that I find very similar to the Serenity is Kinkame European Taupe line from Clothworks. I would not notice the difference using it for machine sewing, but for needleturn applique I do notice a difference, particularly in how easily the fabric frays.
I do like the changes that EE Schenck has made to Serenity, not only the fabric weight, but also returning to a broader color palette, more characteristic of the earlier Serenity releases... I hope they continue with this.

BTW, I love your website.
-Steven

Very interesting. I had never heard of them before :)

Peckish: I just saw your question and I will post on it later. I will show you some magazine covers and some taupe projects. My avatar is a hand-pieced and quilted sewing case that I made following my favorite magazine's instructions.

meanmom: I do not know of any Japanese quilt magazine in English. I pick whatever project I like and read it through multiple times before I attempt it. There are a lot of photos and diagrams, but a tremendous amount of detail in most projects.