How and Where to Get Cross Stitch Designs

You can get cross stitch kits that come with the design to work with, which is great, until you complete it and have no idea where to get another design from. Instead of buying another kit, you can invest in Aida fabric, different types and colors of thread, needles and pins, and get your designs elsewhere. There are numerous sources of cross stitch designs, but here are the 3 main ones.



Online Cross Stitching Resources



The Internet is excellent for getting brilliant designs for your cross stitching. Some sites provide free designs which you can simply print out in color on your computer, while others sell books on cross stitching that come with traceable or pull-out designs. There are also online communities where fellow cross stitching enthusiasts share their patterns and designs with others. A good search online can give you all these resources for cross stitching.



Arts and Craft Stores



Another place to find designs is from your local arts and crafts store. Some stores do specialize in cross stitching items from entire kits to individual tools and equipment, so you can get loads of patterns on sale there. You may opt to place a special order in case the store does not supply cross stitch designs. It is affordable and much easier to find very unique pattern books which you can trace and use for your own work.



D.I.Y Cross Stitch Design



If you have a drawing or design skill, or if all the designs from the above sources don’t quite capture what you have in mind, then make your cross stitch patterns for yourself. There is no limit to what you can adapt into a cross stitch pattern, from a photograph even to your own imagination. For images, you may need to use image editing software to render it as a cross stitch pattern. This is best done by adding grid lines, or tiles and mosaic filters to convert the image, then print it out to use when stitching. The other alternative is to use transparent paper to trace the image using the cross stitch techniques.



On the same note, if you have your own design in mind, you can create it on your computer and use the process above, or you can draw it by hand on graph paper to make the cross stitches. Use different colored pens to create your very own design. With these ideas, you can never run out of beautiful and one-of-a-kind cross stitch patterns to work with.