You can use color to create harmony and subtlety in your designs. This can easily be achieved by choosing a color palette from only one side of the color wheel. In the example above I took my color cues from the base color of the garment. I then chose a lighter green and a green blue to make up most of my design. To create a little bit of interest I chose to embroider the flowers in maroon with yellow centers. This creates a a very harmonious and pleasing design with just a hint of excitement. Try using your color wheel the next time you plan out a design and see how much easier the whole prococess becomes. To see all of the designs in my "Dress Up Your Designs" collection go to www.kenparsonsdesigns.com

By changing the color palette of your design you can totally alter the personality of your design. In the example above I changed the colors of the butterflies to shdes of blue and purple. By then placing the the design on a yellow background I created a visual tension between the embroidery and the fabric color thereby making the embroidery much more prominent. You can also achieve this effect by changing the color of the garment upon which you are placing the embroidery. Start by evaluationing the major color families in your design, then consult your color wheel and choose a base fabic on the opposite side of the wheel. You will find the result to be much more vibrant and lively. To see how easily you can adjust the individual colors in your design using Compositions project based embroidery design software go to www.kenparsonsdesign.com to view the online demo.

Last week I mentioned some of the many different types and weights of thread that are available for embroidery. Today I would like to talk about the power and importance of color in embroidery. To the left you can see a color wheel which is a great tool for choosing colors that will work well to acheive the result you desire.
An extreme example of this is the Op Art movement of the 60's in which opposite colors or what are called complementary colors, such as purple and yellow or red and green, or orange and blue were used together to create visual tension. The tension caused by placing two opposite colors together combined with spiral and geometric repeated patterns actually made the artwork look as though it was moving or pulsating.
When you are designing embroidery you need to take into consideration the color of the fabric that you will be embroidering upon and think about the effect which will be achieved when the the thread color interacts with it.
If you want a design that is soothing and pleasing to the eye choose colors which are adjacent to the fabric color. Conversely if you want your design to stand out from the base fabric choose colors on the opposite side of the color wheel.
I know all of this is very elementary but sometimes it is the logical and simple aspects of embroidery design that we overlook. That is why when I was working on Compositions embroidery design software, I made sure that you were prompted to choose your fabric color before you actually start designing your embroidery. To see how this works step by step go to. http://www.kenparsonsdesigns.com/flash/webpreview.php