Yes I've run into that situation. I was redecorating and a girlfriend asked if I needed a new dust ruffle for the bed. Yes, green. The one she brought me was green all right, like a blue spruce is green. Argh! I finally realized that the general public doesn't recognize shades and values like a quilter does. So I agree. Don't ask.

They just don't know how many colors really exist in an artist's world....we are all artists' working with a huge mass of color choices! Now we know how Rembrandt and Monet felt. LOL

It's not just blue, try matching blacks, whites, ivory's.Even with an OTT flashlight it's almost impossible. Lucky to hit the ballpark.

Our high school choir decided on blue velvet dresses and blue jackets for the guys. So they arranged for us to buy our dress material at a local shop and sent off a swatch to the manufacturer for the jackets. Ha! Talk about clash! Even the paid professionals can't get it right.

I made a king size string quilt of blues. The only chance of making it work is to use every shade of blue on the planet at least once.

I've always found it amazing that if one uses all sorts of shades of a given color, it seems to work.

But if using only two or three shades of a given color, one has to be a lot more careful.

sounds like you answered your own question ;-)

Sounds like something my sister would do.

Trying to match reds outside of a collection line can make me pull my hair out!!!

OK, I'm a brat. I'd find the yukkiest blue ever and send her a swatch and see how quick she narrows down her selection of "blue." But then, I'm a brat and have two sisters who would probably do the same thing! Smile!!

My sister is used to my sarcasm, so I would have been tempted to give her a long list light blues.