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Hi All

I'm new to the forum but have been stitching for a while.

I was wondering if anyone could help me and let me know how it is that they choose the colour of the aida that they are going to be stitching on

I have 2 patterns which have an red/pink backgroun but white stitches as part of the design and so don't want to use white aida.

Any suggestions would be great

hi and welcome! because of the white floss, perhaps you could try: antique white, ivory, a shell-pink shade, or light blue.
HTH!

Hello!
I have heard of people who dye (sp?) their own Aida - and have seen some beautiful examples. But I have never tried it - it's a different art. Maybe someone has some better advice how to do it.

Hi Smita and welcome!

I agree a white aida would probably not be good, maybe a natural colour would work, or antique/cream aida.

There is a unicorn pattern in a recent Cross Stitcher mag, but they've got it on a VERY bright pink aida.... I'm planning on changing that to a navy one!

Hi Smita and welcome

I must admit to mostly using white but am branching out into using cream and I have several coloured pieces of fabric that I won in a competition that I have yet to use.

I have in the past done several small personalised house samplers for friends designing their houses and pictures appropriate to them and these looked great done on black. Black shows up the colours very well. Unfortunately I don't have photos. (Note to self to get pictures)

I did have one friend who had a black and white house and black labradors and it was impossible to do it justice on black or white so I 'fabric painted' white aida to a brightish crimson pink and it worked very well. (Not sure of its washability though )

What patterns are you doing - it may help us to suggest what colour ?

Thank you for the kind words of welcome

The designs that i have are of a sikh guru and the aum (hindu) symbol.

I have found many pictures on the net of gods and godesses that i want to stitch.......set myself a real task!

I also have a friend who i did a jesus cross stitch for christmas and had it framed and she loved it and other people have seen it and so i have got orders coming in and need to get stitching!

However, i work full time and so only have the evening and the weekends to do this but it has to take a back seat i can only sit down to do this once i have done all the chores around the house


I have tried to attach the pictures so that you can see but with no luck

One has a maroon/dark red background and the other has a blood colour background
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Are you intending to stitch the background as well as the picture? If so, as long as you use the right no. of strands for coverage of the material, maybe it won't matter quite so much what colour the fabric is.

Sew and So have a few colours to choose from

http://www.sewandso.co.uk/ran465-0.html

Hi Smita and welcome.

There are so many choices and the colors are all over the rainbow.

http://www.charlescraft.com/ This site has some different color aida, there are lots of sites that sell different colors. In the wanted section is a thread called Internet Sites in there you should find lots of places with many different selections.

As Maggs said though if you are going to be covering the background with stitching it may not matter what color you stitch on.

I've used very dilute watercolour paint on white or off white fabric. MUST be cotton though! (or linen) Dry it then wash it again to get rid of any excess. You can get a 'mottled' effect rather like the 'antique' range that is now so popular. Or just paint parts of the fabric, like sky or grass to cut down on stitching time!! Then add a few 'interest' stitches over the top.
Have also dipped crunched up fabric in cold tea to get an aged effect. Bit like tie-dye! Then again dried and rewashed.

All helps to cut costs of fancy fabrics and use up odd bits.

OH YES!! WELCOME to the Forum!!

As others have said, if your stitches will be covering the whole piece i don't think it matters so much what colour the fabric is, just try to pick something fairly neutral. Otherwise, i guess it depends what colour you want showing through in the background.

Yes, welcome to the forum.

This might be a silly and simpleton sort of question, but does the designer mention what fabric was used to stitch the original?

I like the idea of "painting" the fabric. Maybe paint with a contrasting light color just around the area where the design is going to be stitched and fade it out towards the edges.
I've never done it, but have thought of it for several years.
Quite a few years ago I crocheted a doily that had violas in it. I mixed some pastel acrylic craft paint with some fabric medium and carefully painted only the flowers and leaves. I think I ironed the doily to set the colors. It's been hand washed several times over the years and still looks lovely and the colors haven't faded.
Just an idea...

Keep us posted on what you decide....and don't forget to share photos!

Lori

I think that i am going to use an ivory/beige type colour background

Although the ideas suggested are great i don't think that i would have the confidence just yet to try them out.

So in answer the questions asked, yes i will be stitching the background and no there is no original chart as i have translated the picture in to the PC Stitch software.

The jesus picture i did had a lot of red and white so i think that is what i wil go for!

Thanks for all the help!

However, i work full time and so only have the evening and the weekends to do this but it has to take a back seat i can only sit down to do this once i have done all the chores around the house

If I waited until I have done all the chores... I would never make a stitch.

Hi Smita,
May I suggest buying a hand-dyed fabric. You wouldn't necessarily have to stitch the full background if you selected the right color. There are several websites and shops that sell some absolutely lovely fabric.
This will give you some ideas of the different fabrics out there.
http://www.stitching.jekdesign.com/FabricChoices.html

And a few websites
http://www.enchantedfabrics.com/
http://www.heavenleecreations.com/
http://www.silkweaver.com/
http://www.sugarmaplefabrics.com/

I didn't see a picture (probably just missed it) so I can't make any recommendations. The right fabric can really make the project just jump beautifully. Take a look at some of the stuff on those webpages to get some ideas.
Alyson

I don't find it an issue if anything stitching helps me relax and so getting my chores out the way is so that i can concentrate on my stitching.

I will try the dyed fabric for another project that will suit the dyed fabric.

I have now ordered my fabric so i will have to wait for that to arrive and then all i have to do now is figure out a way to print the design out!

It's one thing after another!

Hi Smita,
Usually the projects ive done it has specified the fabric or come in a kit but one design that my mum and i loved - Joan Elliots Renaissance Lady -was stitched on a colour that we couldnt get here...We had a look at the diff coloured fabrics and then the range of colours used in the design and picked out what looked best with the prominent colours. I was still a bit unsure of the fabric with some particular colours so i found just doing a couple of quick stitches of main colour blocks and odd ones that stand out really helped me to decide what fabric to use...