Carol Haydon

Until recently your options for cross stitch patterns have been largely limited to what special manufacturers of cross stitch charts have produced and sold. Although these are still a popular way of doing cross stitch the choice is now really up to you. You are now able to create your oown cross stitch patterns using your own pictures with numerous computer software applications that are available.

Perhaps the most popular of these applications is PCStitch but there are also numerous other software applications that you can use such as the DMC Pattern Designer, Ursa software, and others. To find out what's available, why not enter [cross stitch design + software] into Google (don't forget the square brackets).

Before computers gained popularity a few brave cross stitchers would design their own patterns using coloured pencils and graph paper but these software applications have made the process of creating your own cross stitch patterns so much easier that now if you are a serious cross stitcher there really is no reason why you should not create your own patterns.

If you have a picture or photograph that you would like to make into a cross stitch generally all that is needed is for you to scan the picture and then upload the JPEG image into your cross stitch pattern maker. The pattern maker is then able to place this picture on a grid, allocate the correct colors and symbols to the different blocks and create a color key for you. I normally use the DMC pattern designer which allows you to print the chart with colored blocks, colors and symbols or just symbols. Personally I prefer to print it with colors and symbols although printing all the colors can at times be a costly exercise and you may prefer just printing the black and white symbols or colored symbols.

The pattern designer software also allows you to choose how many colors you would like to use in your design. The idea here is to achieve a balance between creating a realistic picture while not making it too complicated (especially if you are not an expert at cross stitch yet). Especially with photographs the number of colors can get out of hand if you do not limit the number of colors allocated to your pattern. My personal preference is to use between ten and twenty colors but this is also dependent upon the picture I am making as well as its size.

Another element that you need to consider carefully is your scale -- by this I mean make sure that the count on your pattern corresponds to the count of the material that you are going to be using and always allow more material than the pattern designer software recommends. Rather have too much material than too little and you will have to keep re-designing your pattern so that it fits into the smaller piece of material.

Designing your own pattern is also much easier using pattern designer software. To start you simply create a grid the size you want it and choose what colors you are going to have in your pattern and then you can use the drawing tools in the software designer to plot your own pattern and you can erase and re-start as many times as you like until you have the design you were trying to achieve.

If you enjoy cross stitch then I am sure you will enjoy creating your own cross stitch patterns. By creating your own patterns you add a personal touch to each pattern and each pattern can hold a special significance for you. Cross stitch pattern designer software is not too expensive and well worth the cost. Gone are the days of tediously using pens and paper to create your cross stitch patterns; now in a couple of minutes you can have pattern designer software create your personalized patterns for you, and you can sit down to enjoy stitching something more meaningful to you.