I love to stitch and have been embroidering since I was a Girl Scout many, many years ago. My first project was surface embroidery of fruit on a cloth napkin, using burnt orange, red and chartreuse floss. There is a picture of it at the bottom of this page. Hey, those colors are back in fashion!
If you have any questions about the process of acquiring a custom charted cross-stitch pattern, please use the "contact" page e-mail form. I used to post my e-mail address on every page of the website, but after 4500 spam e-mails one day, my webguy suggested trying something else.
A photograph of your finished project is always a welcome addition to the website. Please check out the "samples" page to see what other customers have done.
Charted designs also work from other artistic media--the heart pattern at the top of this page is from a small watercolor that my mom did a few years ago. Line art (straight lines, black and white cartoons, maps, etc.) and text do not translate easily into beautiful cross-stitch. If you are charting a logo, crest or map into a cross-stitch chart, use the smallest count you can handle (18 count or 22 count) and the largest size practical, to obtain sufficient detail.
There are many beautiful fabrics available today for counted cross-stich, some hand-painted, that act as a lovely backdrop so that you do not need to stitch the background. If you are going to create counted needlepoint pattern, the background really should be completely filled in, unless you are painting the canvas first with acrylic paints.
I hope that you enjoy stitching your chart from Heirloom Stitching as much as I did in creating it for you.
Here are some pieces that I've stitched in the past few years.
Stamped Fruit
circa 1970Original goldwork design
B. Smullen 1996Original embroidery, painting, beading design
B. Smullen 2006Scared Silly
Designer, Birds of a FeatherBloom Where You Are Planted
Designer, Birds of a FeatherMelissa's Fob Class
Designer, Melissa Dunajski
How may I help you turn a cherished photograph into an heirloom cross-stitch pattern?
Betsy Smullen, Heirloom Stitching
