Easy Peasy Stitches

If you are wondering how a cross stitch pattern is made, you can find out here in this post how the patterns at easy peasy stitches are developed.

First of all, you need a cross stitch software. There are several on the market. The ones with better ratings are PCStitch and WinStitch. I decided to purchase at the time (2019) the PCStitch 11 because it was user friendly and appeared to me less complicated than WinStitch.

The idea of creating my own patterns sounded great but I never thought it would be so time consuming as it actually is. I need at least up to 4 hours to create a cross stitch pattern, depending on how complex the image is. If it is too complex (lot of shades, forms and colours, size) it can be very difficult to originate an exact copy of the image into cross stitch without using a huge number of threads. I always try to use a maximum of 25 colours on my cross stitch patterns. I want to keep it simple and still affordable when someone decides to stitch one of my cross stitch patterns.

As inspiration I use famous abstract artworks from my favourite artists, Kandinsky, Delaunay, etc. The cross stitch patterns are not an exact copy of the paintings. I change the colours and sometimes forms of the paintings so that the stitching isn’t to complex. Abstract art sometimes involves a lot of shading. Bringing this effect into cross stitch can be very arduous and time consuming. The constant change of threads and the splash of stitches unevenly spread through the pattern drives me crazy. That is why I called my website easy peasy stitches, which stands for uncomplicated stitching. I change the recommended stitches by reducing the number of colours and stitches. Thus it makes the whole stitching easier and fun.

Other important aspect of creating a cross stitch pattern is the colour shade. The cross stitch software recommends you the shades for the picture you want to convert based on the type of threads you want to use. I use the DMC stranded cotton as a colour palette. However I always check the colours with the DMC Color Card at the end. I tend to change the colour that the software recommends to another that resembles more the abstract painting.

That is how I create my cross stitch patterns. You can find them here. It is an arduous process but quite fun to me. The best part of it, of course, it is the stitching. Unfortunately, I don´t always have the time to transform all of my cross stitch patterns into real stitched work.  That´s my goal when I find the time to do it between housework, kids and part-time job…

I hope you like the patterns and find some inspiration for a new project. Abstract cross stitch it is also a very good decoration option. Instead of buying a printed painting, just hang your stitched work on the wall. It will definitely look amazing to expose hours of a wonderful handcraft in the form of art on your home.

Happy stitching!