One of the things I love about having a having designing folk embroidery kits are the gorgeous cones of DMC embroidery floss all around me! These luminous cones of stitchy-goodness are all over my workshop--stacked on shelves, standing ready to inspire on my desk, and generally sprinkled about wherever I might have set them down as I'm working. We hand-wind all the floss for our kits because I love the sheen of the cone floss and it is more economical which helps keep folk embroidery kit prices lower.
Just looking at them makes me happy--almost giddy--at the thought of All. That. Stitching. I think of how they're going out into the world in their little hanks to give other stitchers joy. I never tire of looking up from my desk and seeing their saturated hues and vibrant shades. I keep them organized by shades, but there are always groupings sitting around the workshop as we're making kits or I'm choosing colors for a new design.
When I'm designing, I choose my basic palette while I'm working on the chart, but then I take the cones and put them on the various fabrics to see how everything harmonizes. I'll switch cones in and out until I get an effect I like.
This is the view from my desk and I'm surprised how often I look up and see a new color combination that hadn't occurred to me. Or, something around me can inspire me--we recently painted the exterior of our house in a color very close to 924 grey green med (did I take a cone to the paint store? sure did!) with ivory and black trim and now I'm thinking about doing a design with those colors!
Comments