Well hello there my friend no i never have followed one ,i like to play with color and see how it turns out hugs

Bev, I am like you I just go with the colors I think will look good together. to hard to try and use the specific threads then you would need all brands. Go with the flow for me. Sally

I like my thread systems to match, so I have poly, cotton, rayon, serger, metallic, sewing (love the old Coats and Clark 6 ply poly over cotton which is no longer in manufacture) and then the miscellaneous pile. As far as color. My metro system seems to missing some of the range within a color, however it does have the mix of plus blue, plus yellow. I mostly stick with the prime colors. no color charts unless is has many many colors or I am testing for a digitizer. I like to pick them before I stitch, cut down on the confusion.

hi bevintex; Yes, I'm like you,and many others;don't always follow color charts,as sometimes,just dont't have that color of thread, or ran out or don't like it. I,also think,we all have certain colors we like,which we tend to use more..Diane M.

I treat machine embroidery as a form of colouring in ,using what ever colours that I think will look good in the finished design .I rarely have the brand & colour that is on a colour chart. Must admit to having several different brands printed colour charts to give me an idea of what a certain colour looks like.I only use this as a guide for realistic designs of animals & flowers when using the right colour can make or ruin a design.

I don't take much about embroidery seriously at all, Bev! I like to play with what I think works. (Or what I have closest to). Mind you, if I'm doing a matching set, I need to line all the spools up so I do it the same way the 2nd time, or I'm likely to forget what went where :) I frequently choose the same colour I like in preference to one in a design -like a more peachy pink will replace a baby pink or fuschia etc. I think outlines being in a different colour to black often work much better and soften the impact of the outline.

I do much the same as you do Bev but I also plan ahead a bit and have my threads all lined up at the ready. Hugs Sarah.

Bev glad to see you back and hopefully feeling better.. Nope i use sewhatpro and change the colours to MY liking. As Killiecrankie says "Its like colouring in"... Must be the child still in us :))

I've seldom followed even the colours suggested. At first I didn't have the threads or colours needed, starting out with a Madeira basic set of 15 reels. Then I found that pleasing myself about colours was a very satisfying way to go.
AlmaG.

I'm just starting out but I use whatever colors makes me happy. If a design has lots of shading I don't want to lose that effect by changing too many colors. I got a free design of a pink bear that my nephew loved but he said it had to be done in blue for him, something like that I don't think twice about changing. I buy thread that is easily available with reasonable prices and runs smoothly through my machine. If I have to wait a month for a shipment of thread that's $10 a spool then my machine jams and spits it out it doesn't matter how fancy it is or how much somebody else likes it :-)

most of the time i do follow the colors

I only use Marathon rayon thread...they sell for about R15 a reel in South Africa($1.50)for a 1000m reel and I never stick to color charts

I don't like too much the constraints! I stitch for my pleasure! Then I choose in my thread's collection those what I think are the most harmonious! I buy my threads almost everywhere, on the net, on the markets and more rarely threads of certain brands whom I find too expensive! hélène

I don't follow colourcharts, just choose what I like for the project. When digitising a flower in a number of shades I choose highly contrasting often odd colours so I can see what I am doing; when finished with parts of the digitising say a I changes to colours from my stash and go on with the rest.
When I plan to stitch a lot of the same designs I choose my colours and (if I don't forget) write those down in a notebook for reference.

But I do put my spools of Madeira back in their dedicated spot in their chest of drawers and the Marathon in their place in the cardboard boxes they came in. And the rest are thrown more or less by colour groups in clear plastic boxes.

when I first started embroidery (2006) I did...now I do what I like and go by theme or color the person (who will get it) likes

I use the chart as a guide. Metro lets me translate to something close to the chart as a starting place. I pull colors and then adjust to what I think will look best. I don't own any of the most common threads used by digitizers so I have to improvise

I am just like you Bev. It seems that my machine is not fussy about different brands of thread (so far) and that is a very GOOD thing! Now I just hope I haven't jinxed it!
Hugs, Nadyne

Half the fun is picking and chosing the shade you think will look nice.
Hugs Pam.

I rarely use what is given even when I stitchout my own designs....love mixing it up, like Pam said alot of the fun is picking out the colors!

Only time I followed color chart is X-Stitch especially from Vermillion.

Only time I follow color chart is doing X-Stitch. When color shading is needed
Has anybody done Vermillions Doors or Tea Cups. They are beautiful stitched out.

no I always change colours , there are some greens I don't like so always change them

I choose my own, every time. Like Martine, when digitising, I use colours which show clearly on the screen and they are unlikely to be the ones I use for the actual embroidery. I also leave the threads in order if I am going to stitch the design again.