Heaven and Earth Designs are designed to be stitched on 25 count fabric, but it doesn't mean that you have to go by this. You can use any fabric count you want. ECS has a fabric calculator you can use to play around with different counts, so you can see what you'd like to do.

As for the color, this is a solid design, so the background is not going to show. You could easily go with a white, antique white, cream, or ivory fabric. Again, it's all up to you!! :)

Thank you!

This looks like one of the final scenes from "The Last Unicorn" ... where the unicorns escape from the sea waves. I may have to purchase this pattern too ...