What Color Should that Stitch Be?

December 28, 2011

Originally posted 2007-08-08 06:22:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

You know that sinking feeling, the intersection on the hand-painted canvas is more than one color. You don’t know how to decide what color to stitch.

I call deciding this making an “executive decision” in needlepoint. I thought about what the process was for deciding and came up with some guidelines. Although beginners struggle with this issue, it can come up in just about any canvas which is not completely stitch-painted.

If one color covers more of the intersection than the other, stitch it in that color.

If it’s pretty much half and half, then you could do either. To help you choose, you can see if any of these apply:

1. Is it colored in both foreground and background colors? Choose the foreground color.

2. Is it the only intersection which has that color (no intersections with that color around it)? Choose the isolated color because it’s supposed to be a dot of that color.

3. Is it colored a light color and a dark color? Darker colors recede, so picking the darker color will probably make the two areas look more balanced.

4. I one color part of a line? Follow the line on the canvas to see how it will look if this intersection is stitched in that color. I’ve had it happen sometimes when stitching the color of the line instead of the other color made the line look bad.

Sometimes you choose wrong, everyone does. If this happens, don’t be afraid to pull the stitch out and use the other color.

Related posts:

  1. Ideas for Color Experimentation
  2. Stitches, Thread Color and “Show Through”
  3. Two-color Stitch Diagrams Now Online
  4. Controlling the Overdyed Thread – Color Clouds
  5. Color, Threads, and Quilts – 2011 Club

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