Every once in awhile I find a design I like but the colors are all wrong for my house. May I change the colors and how would I do that?

There is no law, legal or moral, that says you must work every design exactly as charted. You may use the fabrics and threads suggested or choose your own – you probably change fabric counts regularly, as well as fabric colors, without thinking too much of it.

Do not make color changes randomly. Begin by laying out all the colors suggested by the designer – lay them out in front of you from light to dark with each color family. See how they relate to each other and make your changes so that the new colors relate in the same way and match the tonal values of the original threads.

If a pattern call for four shades of light pink, three shades of light green, and five shades of light blue and you change the light pinks to dark rose/pinks, you will also need to darken the green and the blues, or the rose/pinks will “scream” at you and the greens and blues will be lost.

Information from Cross Country Stitching Magazine columns "Ask Judie" - Judie Solomon, Thistle Needleworks & "Carol’s Crafty Corner" - Carol Rice, The Craft Menagerie

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