"Do you use cross stitch software?"

I am often asked "Do you use counted cross stitch software to design your kits?" Or "Will your computer convert a photo to cross stitch?"

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 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 . . .

designing-cross-stitch (20K)

Early days of designing

Back in the early 1990's I started playing around with designing my own patterns. I used graph paper and coloured pencils along with plenty of glue sticks!

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 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.

electric-typewriter (8K) In order to look professional I suggested to my husband that we bought an electric typewriter. He thought a computer would make more sense and offered to buy me one. I have to admit that back then the thoughts of using a computer frightened me, but he agreed that if I really didn't get on with it, he would swap it for a typewriter after 3 weeks.

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 trialed 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.

easy-cross-software (30K) I clearly remember the Sunday when I download a trial version of Easy Cross. 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 and all that!

But there again, I didn't know where to start with writing a website either, just one short year ago! Want to know how I did it?

To make a long story short, almost 15 years later I am still using Easy Cross to design.

Want to learn the benefits of using a computer to design?

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Choosing from all those counted cross stitch programs out there!