Originally posted 2009-07-14 06:50:22. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
If you want to make a Scrap Bag Needlepoint from your stash and want it to have a coordinated look, there’s nothing better than pulling out all your threads in a particular color scheme.
That’s what I chose to do for my version of the delightful abstract cross stitch you first saw awhile ago. I’m making it to go into my powder room and using a blue-violet and violet color scheme. There are also some accents based on Caron Collections Amethyst (pink and olive) and on the gray and brown undertones of the violet colors.
But just randomly picking colors doesn’t always work, especially if you have a design such as this one which is busy and doesn’t have any background. If I picked all my threads in these color and just chose randomly, I’d end up with a mess.
But there is a clever and easy way to adapt ANY design to a different color scheme and that’s by using a one-to-one substitution. Begin by looking at the pattern and writing down the colors in color families. For some patterns the value of the colors is important, for others, such as this one, it isn’t.
Now think about textures. Are there any colors in the design which stand out sharply, either because they are painted a different texture or they are a different color? Pick threads for those first. In looking at this pattern it seemed to me that the bright yellow stood out as if it should be gold.
I picked a multi-colored metallic to use for all the blocks in that color.
Next I looked at color families and picked similar threads or colors for those. The pinks and reds use three shades of blue-violet. The two golds used two shades of muted violet to almosty brown. I had problems when I got to the final two families of violets and greens, largely because I needed to get more variety into the piece.
The two violets use an two overdyes I had which has lots of warm colors in it and the lavender the lightest of the accent colors. The blue uses the Amethyst overdye because blocks of it occur all over the design and will tie it together, giving it a color scheme. These choices added color and accents throughout the design, but I still worried it wasn’t enough.
The three greens were left to pick. I decided that I’d try to pick threads to be accents for them and not worry about them being the same color. The lightest green is a pink metallic, since the original metallic wasn’t as attention-getting stitched as it is in the spool. The darkest green is a dark violet velour, a different texture. That left the middle green and I didn’t like any of the accent colors I had left. So I picked a light blue-violet similar to the color I used for the pink but ion a different fiber. Since this is near the wall color of the room, It will work.
I wrote down my substitutions and proceeded to test them. Starting in one corner, I stitched blocks of each color in the substituted. Thread. I’m not very far along, which is OK, because I can see that the colors work nicely together to make a harmonious whole.
Tomorrow we’ll cover stitch choice for the project.
Related posts:
I love this way this is looking – I can’t wait to see it when you get it done!
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