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Turn Any Picture into a Cross-Stitch Pattern

by on Mar 16, 2009

I think more people would cross-stitch if it were called ‘pixelated thread art’, which, in 21st century parlance, is exactly what it is. A series of X’s made over woven cloth to create pictures and words. Sound familiar? Three centuries or so ago, young woman did counted cross stitch as a means to become proficient with a needle and thread as much as to learn their alphabet and numbers. Nowadays, the act of cross-stitching has less-weighty implications, but, for many, it’s still a beloved art form. And now with photo-to-cross-stitch-pattern-converter, we can turn any picture into a piece of ‘pixelated thread art’ for $7.50 each. OR, for $10 monthly fee, we can convert as many pictures as we like. 

created at: 2009-03-16

Using the Pattern Creator, I turned my boyfriend Johnny pictured above into the cross-stitch pattern below. I chose the size I wanted, how many stitches I wanted to make per inch, how many colors of thread and brand of thread I wanted to use, if I wanted any effects like sepia or grey scales, if I wanted my colors diffused or not and even brightness and contrast. Pattern Creator makes your pattern according to your preferences and also gives you a color chart of thread, complete with brand & color number.

created at: 2009-03-16

If all this cross-stitch talk has left you intimidated–DON’T BE! Counted cross stitch is one of the easiest crafts you could ever learn. If you don’t believe me, check out this tutorial on Yarn Tree entitled ‘Learn Cross Stitch in 5 Minutes.’  Yup…5 minutes!!

Primary pic courtesy of radicalcrossstitch.com.

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