Japanese Taupe Quilts 125 Blocks in Calm and Neutral Colors

Create exquisite quilts in the Japanese style featuring cool, calming taupe colors -- with tips, techniques, and inspiration from an acclaimed textile artist.

The distinctive beauty of contemporary Japanese quilts in soft sepia tones is known and admired by quilters the world over. These cool and calm fabrics are easily combined, often with accents of brick red, olive green, or yellow ocher, to create a style that is both new and evocative of vintage quilts.

In Japanese Taupe Quilts, acclaimed textile artist Susan Briscoe presents 125 patterns for patchwork and applique blocks that have been drafted from a variety of traditional sources, including Japanese fabric, paper, architectural designs, and kamon family crests. For each block, Briscoe provides a photo, a clear instructional diagram or template, a fabric palette, and cutting guide, as well as detailed instructions for making the block. At-a-glance icons indicate skill level (from beginner to experienced quilter) and techniques used.

The blocks can be mixed and matched, tessellated for allover patterns, or combined into sampler quilts. Combination ideas appear throughout the block directory, together with six simple projects: pillow, lap quilt, tote bag, table runner, wall hanging, and satchel handbag.

Susan Briscoe, who lives in the U.K., is a textile designer, author, and teacher, specializing in sashiko and Japanese textile design. Briscoe taught English teacher Japan, where she also studied the tea ceremony, traditional textiles, and kimono design and tailoring. She has created design kits for Japanese patchwork fabrics, published textile projects in books and magazines, and demonstrates her work at quilt and textile shows. She is the author of Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match, published by Kodansha America.