Neon! Gelato! Graffiti! Mirrors!

What do all these thing have in common? They are all aspects of current trends in color.

As stitchers, much of what we do isn’t influenced by trends, but incorporating new color trends is a great way to make your needlepoint look current.

Think about these ideas to:

• add a bit of stitching to a piece of clothing
• make a quick ornament, like these free quilt designs of mine
• incorporate these colors into a purse, fashion accessory, or tote insert
• use these newer pastels instead of the pastels in a painted canvas

Bright

Plasticine is Pantone’s word for a trendy combination of highly saturated (bright) colors combined with smooth textures. Some of theses coors positively glow like neon, while others are just very bright. You could even combine the bright colors of 60’s psychedelic posters with smooth textures for a great look for your stitching. Whether used alone or n complex patterns when placed against a dull background, these colors have great punch.

The bold colors and patterns of street art (i.e. graffiti) also inspire this palette and its patterns. While these colors owe their existence to the limited colors available in spray paint, you can incorporate them along with large blocks of color and dark lines for interesting focal points and backgrounds.

Reflections

Mirrors and reflective surfaces are showing up in unexpected places on everything from a silver pair of men’s dress shoes to the more expected lamps.

This is another trend that’s easy to incorporate into your needlepoint. With so many colors and textures of metallics available, why not make metallic your focal point as I did by shading a pink ribbon pin using four shades of Kreinik.

When combining color and metallic the effects less in your face than polished silver shoes but still takes advantage of this color trend.

Gelato Pastels

Light colors are always popular and right now the trend is towards richer, brighter, and creamy color inspired by the colors in fresh fruit and gelato. I especially like those creamy gelato colors, they always inspire me.

Perhaps the most typical of these is seafoam green, a light, white-based green that has a vintage 50’s feel. If you look at the light greens in vintage Jadite or Instragram pictures, you’ll see what I mean.

To create a modern feel when you are using pastels, use this green instead of a paler, more yellow mint green, and combine it with other milky pastels seen in the vintage-inspired photos. You’ll still be pastel, but not cliched.

This is forecasted to be a big decorating trend for Easter 2013, so it’s a perfect time to get stitching.

World Culture

In fashion and home decor these days, the tribal look is everywhere. THese can be the bright colors in African cloth or telephone wire baskets, or the eye popping combinations of Indian prints.

These colors use saturated shades against dark neutrals such as black, dark brown or navy.

Best of all for us stitchers is that many of these pieces have a strong geometric component that translates easily to stitching.

A great idea would be to use a blank piece of canvas and a selection of bright threads to make a tribal insert for a Lee bag. It would be fashionable, colorful and easy to change.