If you’ve ever set out to tackle an embroidery project that doesn’t come out of a book or a kit, you know what it’s like to mull over color choices.

For me, making good color decisions can be a fairly arduous task. Thankfully, there are some good books on the market that can help with this – Trish Burr’s Colour Confidence in Embroidery (which I reviewed a few years ago) is one of my favorites!

Besides books, though, there are myriad ways to find color ideas for embroidery projects. The most obvious way: take a look around you!

Recently, I found inspiration for a small embroidery project in a most unlikely place.

When I originally sat down to embroider the little flower above, which is a sample for an article I’m writing later this year, I pondered a color scheme.

Sometimes, it can take me forever to work up a color scheme, even on a simple little project, because that’s just the way I am. I try. It doesn’t grab me. I try again. It doesn’t grab me. I try again. Get the idea? It can be a long, drawn-out process.

So there I was, pondering.

Ponder, ponder, ponder.

I was sitting at my desk. In front of me were scattered – oh, many, many things! And among them was a stack of William Morris decorated file folders that I use for sorting patterns and projects. I wrote about these file folders and what I use them for quite a while ago.

But I never thought of using them for color inspiration, even though I think they’re quite pretty.

I’m a sucker for organizational supplies that are pretty… but it doesn’t necessarily follow that I’m super organized, trust me!

In any case, I looked at one of the file folders (which you can see in the background of the photo above), and I thought, Why not?

I pulled out my floche and started sorting colors, and there they were, a perfect selection of colors in the same scheme. And they looked good on this particular linen I was planning to use.

It was a happy conclusion to what could have been a real time killer. Color selection is not always easy! Often, it involves painting, colored pencils, starting over… but in this case, it was just a matter of laying out some office supplies and throwing some threads down to find a match.

The moral of the story: Never underestimate the color inspiration that you can find even in the most mundane things, including office supplies!

Enjoy your Monday!