I am a scrappy girl so I love gray and all colors in between. There are some colors I don't like as well as others, but I still love them in a truly scrappy quilt. That said, I am not wild about that quilt either. That gray is sort of blaaah, but there ae a lot ofcolos like that Good for some things, not or others I am working on a scrappy Ocean Waves right now - it has upwards of 3,000 hst and I just love it. It's Bonnie Hunters pattern and I am crazy for the movement in these blocks - black is my constant and it does a great job of showing off the different fabrics used. A dark grey could have been used in mine, but put that med tone grey and everything would have been drug down (my opinion). That might be a good color for really brights? I'm not a fan of the OMG colors.

I love the grays, what I will never use is civil war prints. Variety is the spice of life.

I love gray but have found you have to be really careful of your choice of gray. SOme grays just kill the beauty of the other colors in the quilt. I wanted to make a purple and gray baby quilt. I found some beautiful purples but the gray just made the purple look blah! I tried numerous combinations and eventually gave up and used white. I have since found some good combos. Who knew it was so hard to match a gray to anything.

I do like the grays, but also lots and lots of other colors. It all depends on the quilt.

I'm with you. Swap the gray for white or even light tan. Anything but gray. Blechhhh. Life is in color. Gray is just so ... dead.

I like gray, but only in small amounts. I'm with you on too much can be drab. There is a pattern I like very much that uses gray with taupe, beige and other neutrals; it is beautiful. Gray has its place, but I like it in small amounts.

Just finished a quilt for this year's church bazaar. Focus print has dark blue/gray background. Then I threw in some rust dotted circles and a soft gray circle material. I am loving it. I do agree that you have to be careful with gray because it can cause a drabness to your quilt.

I do like gray a lot, in the right context. It's a lovely neutral, an alternative to white or black. I used it on a wedding quilt last year, see here:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...e-t232391.html

Just out of curiosity, what background color would you have chosen for the AQS winning quilt?

I agree, I am not overly fond of gray's that are so popular now. Give it a little time, and gray's will go out of style.