How many of you are always looking for new ways to use your embroidery designs - always, or never? If never, you are overlooking wonderful opportunities! Do you optimize the use of every design? Do you routinely review your library of designs to see if you can combine motifs from one set with another? Have you noticed how embroidery design styles have changed over the past few years? Give those old motifs a new look by using the designs that you got way back when, again! Add new motifs under, or around, them to create a whole new look! My last big project, a wind jacket back, is a good example of what anyone can do with a little time and imagination!

With fall already upon us, I wanted something tropical in my wardrobe as it's still every where in ready-to-wear & home dec. The colors are just as exciting as leaves turning colors. With the tropical look continuing into fall, I remembered a wind jacket, with a hole that needed covering, in my closet. The fabric is an aqua, "falling leaf" jacquard that would be perfect in both style & color!

I began with the 168-169 Tropical scene components but wanted to add other motifs to cover the entire jacket back. Next I added a colorful bird from set 166 Flights of Fancy.

Although larger, these birds were simply wonderful as forefront motifs with the smaller tropical plants as background! When I went back through my sets, up to 2 years old, I found 117 Japanese Botanicals with several motifs that worked into what I had already stitched to make a spectacular finished look. The scene had motifs from 4 entirely different themes that I had never thought about putting together before.

When planning a large area you want to give the effect of being almost covered, yet leave an open effect. You want most motifs to appear as just an illusion, with only a few focus pieces to be in full fill. Often this can achieve this by using muted colors that almost blend into the fabric color & brighter colors for the key pieces which you want to draw the real attention.

TIP: A great way to visualize how the whole "picture" will look, print out 1:1 size templates of the motifs, cut them out & move like puzzle pieces until it's pleasing to you.

The main things to watch when creating a large area or scene are:

1. Don't overdo it! Don't try to fill every single inch of the large area making the scene too busy.

2. Don't worry about exact placement - a random look is much more attractive, especially on all 4 sides. Place motifs in an uneven fashion.

3. Don't limit yourself to motifs from one set - you might wind up with something less than spectacular!

4. Think outside the box! You may be surprised at the sets you pull motifs from to create a whole new theme! Example: try roosters with florals or veggies or create a theme of fruit & flowers.

5. Don't let the design colors keep you from considering them for the project. Very often a few color changes will give a whole new look to a motif making it work with something else you would never have considered before.

If you don't "think outside the box", you are missing out on the real enjoyment & ability to expand your creativity to optimize the use of your designs! To see what I mean, take a look at the photo of my finished wind jacket that is post on our web site!

Thread Artist has the superior designs & supplies you need to make all your creations as spectacular as you imagine them. You've invested a lot in your equipment; don't compromise the projects you create with your equipment by using less than the very best supplies & embroidery designs available anywhere!

Sandy Carter is the author of embroidery articles at embroidery designs by Thread Artist. She has an article about embroidery software for digitizing and lettering fonts at embroidery software. There is free embroidery digitizing Tutorial at this web address - embroidery by Thread Artists.

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