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1 easy way to change thread colors in a machine embroidery design

1 easy way to change thread colors in a machine embroidery design

by Christine Baker

Yesterday on QUILTsocial we talked about the first steps to take when designing an embroidered miniature quilt on THE Dream Machine 2 from Brother. We imported six different block designs into the machine and they were converted into embroidery designs.

Let me show you how to recolor the blocks in my design to match the threads that I have on hand.

THE Dream Machine 2

THE Dream Machine 2

Here are the original colors of the block embroidery designs that were created yesterday by THE Dream Machine 2.

The original colors of the block embroidery designs

The original colors of the block embroidery designs

I’m using the Splendor rayon thread pack, Retro, to embroider my miniature quilt.

WonderFil thread pack, Retro

WonderFil thread pack, Retro

I want to be able to see what my block designs will look like in the thread colors that are included in the thread pack, so I’ll do the modifications from the “edit” screen.

Entering the "edit" screen

Entering the “edit” screen

I select the thread palette key on the edit screen.

Select the thread color button

Select the thread color button

The screen now shows all of the thread changes required to stitch the block designs. The up and down arrows are used to scroll through the different colors in the embroidery design.

Use arrows to scroll through the colors in the design

Use arrows to scroll through the colors in the design

When I press on the color I want to change and I can tell it’s been selected because the outline of the key is now blue.

The selected color is highlighted with a blue ring

The selected color is highlighted with a blue ring

Since we selected the “royal purple” key, the screen shows the royal purple section of the first quilt block embroidery design. Since each of the blocks is a separate embroidery design, I’m only changing the royal purple in the first block not all of the royal purple sections on the screen.

The royal purple section of the first block

The royal purple section of the first block

The thread palette is shown at the bottom of the edit screen. The new color can be selected from any of the colors shown. When a thread color is selected, that square becomes bigger than all of the others and the name of the color appears at the top of the palette. You can select the color by either touching the colored boxes or by using the arrows on the right side of the screen to scroll through the colors.

Selecting a new color from the thread palette

Selecting a new color from the thread palette

Once a new color is selected, the quilt block design on the screen will show what it will look like if stitched with that color choice, like pre screening…

The recolored block

The recolored block

As you can see I changed the colors in the embroidery design on the screen of THE Dream Machine 2 so that they closely match the threads in the WonderFil theme pack.

Matching the thread colors

Matching the thread colors

Here’s a close up of the six recolored block embroidery designs.

The six recolored quilt blocks

The six recolored quilt blocks

Now that the block embroidery designs are recolored, tomorrow I rearrange them into an actual quilt design. I can’t wait to get stitching my miniature quilt!

This is part 2 of 5 in this series.
Go back to part 1: First steps to embroidering a miniature quilt on THE Dream Machine 2

Go to part 3: Iron out the kinks on your embroidery design on THE Dream Machine 2

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