"Do you use cross stitch software?"

Yes, I do use a computer to assist my designing, and wouldn't be without it now, but it doesn't do all the work for me!

Designing cross stitch by computer has many benefits. The cross stitch software saves me time, it makes things easier, and it allows me to experiment with colour, placement and ideas. Let me tell you how I got here . . .

Early days of designing

One of my projects was to design commemorative samplers for friends. Each motif was drawn onto squared paper, then cut out, and pasted onto a larger sheet of paper. This cut and paste job was time consuming, messy and sticky!

After designing some small cross stitch motifs and submitting them to a major UK needlework magazine, I was lucky enough to be asked to design for them on a regular basis.

My introduction to computers

So what happened three weeks later? He would have had to chop of my hand to make me let go of the computer!

Soon after that I discovered my first DOS cross stitch software. It enabled me to print the charts that I sent to the magazine so they were neat and easy to read. No more scruffy hand-drawn charts with parts of the paper almost worn away where I had erased mistakes.

The next step was a bigger and better computer (why is the one we have never good enough?) and I looked around for a Windows program. By this time we also had the internet and I downloaded and tried all the cross stitch software I could find. I eventually settled on the most expensive program I could find, after all if it cost a lot it must be good eh?

Fast forward 3 years. I was beginning to get frustrated with things I felt were missing in the program I was using and started looking around at what was now available. I found two programs that looked interesting, one more expensive than the other.

Finding the right program

I got more and more excited as the afternoon passed.

"Wow it does this, hey that's easy."

"Oh I like that. Wow!"

In fact I was so delighted that I rang the manufacturer there and then and arranged to visit him the following day to buy my copy. Oh and by the way, this was the cheaper of the two alternatives.

This time when I wanted the program to do something extra I rang Colin and asked if it was possible. He asked me to beta test for him and together we built "my ideal cross stitch software". Well all right, he built it, incorporating my ideas, I wouldn't know where to start with programming!

But there again, I didn't know where to start with writing a website either, just two short years ago!

Want to know how I did it and if you could do it also?

To make a long story short, almost 15 years later I am still using Easy Cross when designing cross stitch blackwork, hardanger etc.

Do you have a question about charting or designing a pattern of your own?

If you are a budding designer, or just want to chart out a special poem or quote to hang on your wall, I am sure there are questions you would like answered. Unless you know another designer, it is difficult to find those answers isn't it? Well not any longer! You can ask me.

I don't profess to being the fount of all knowledge, but after having been a designer for many years I might just be able to steer you in the right direction. There is no harm in asking is there?...

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