Well please don’t worry – they’ve all been generated with industry standard software (3rd party, we haven’t written it!), and Nikki is stitching one at the moment herself (along with quite a few other projects.

Just look at the image below of her 24th July 2024 update of “Keeping Warm” – one of our favourite patterns. The 3d nature is really working well, and the eyes just ‘ping’ out of the fabric. We’ve also seen other keen stitchers sharing their progress of this pattern on instagram – it’s our no. 1 downloaded pattern, take a look at it here.

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Well at heart Nikki is a stitcher and has been sewing cross-stitch projects for most of her adult life. She’s finished an amazing amount of full coverage pieces, including some from Heaven and Earth Designs and GeckoRouge, which both are amazing places to buy kits from! Buying kits from companies like those who support artists by licensing their artwork is 100% the way to go. You can see more of Nikki’s finishes on her old craft blog website here.

We can give away Nikki’s designs as the artwork is ours, so we don’t have anyone else to pay. Nikki’s hubby Kristian is a bit of a web whizz, so creating this site is just a hobby too. Therefore we just pay for the hosting, and if people donate towards that, that is great, but not required.

So yeah, you shouldn’t feel any guilt at downloading our cross-stitch patterns at all – they are free, and we are happy for you to share links to the site, share the patterns, and just enjoy stitching them!

Just don’t ask for a ‘refund’… we’re not sure how you do that on freebie?! 😀

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The first has been released, Lady of Winter (it does feel cold right now, so it’s quite apt!). We think it’s a beautiful image and chart. During conversion, Nikki checked how the pattern looked in pattern keeper, and for this one, stitched an area of the face as we were not happy with a colour conversion. So the offending colour was hand replaced in the pattern design software to something which fit better.

So our process is;

1) We just let our imaginations and creative juices go wild and create a LOT of digital artwork. We mainly use open source 3rd party tools, which include AI artwork generation using Stable Diffusion.

2) We then select the very best images (in our opinion), and convert them into PDF patterns (Pattern Keeper compatible) using WinStitch (found here).

3) Visual check – do the patterns look ‘right’, are colours correct?

4) Pattern Keeper check – does the pattern load into Pattern Keeper correctly, and what does the mock image look like?

5) Load into this website – and GIVE IT AWAY!

So it does take a while from initial creation to release, but it’s fun and a hobby (not a job!), so we hope you enjoy the results. Read more about us here.

Happy stitching! Nikki and Kristian.

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We thought we could combine our skills to create this small website and catalog, where all the artwork is created by ourselves, then turned into PDF cross-stitch patterns. The patterns are all going to be compatible with Pattern Keeper, as Nikki uses it for all her stitching (if possible!), and knows what a boon it can be.

We will normally create the patterns using the standard DMC thread colours, and all will be in PDF format, so you can print, work off a screen, or use an app like Pattern Keeper. We won’t print or supply physical patterns – so you’ll need access to a printer if you prefer physical copies. This way we keep costs down and reduce the environmental impact of our hobby.

You won’t find these designs anywhere else – and we’d love to see your WIP photos of them, we will happily share them in a gallery (which will include Nikki’s own work).

All the patterns are available for download FOR FREE – if you wish to add a donation to help cover hosting costs, that’s fantastic, thank you! But don’t feel you have to donate – we’d rather you enjoy stitching our designs than not!

Thanks, and happy stitching, Nikki & Kristian.

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Nikki Stitches creator Nikki B takes you through her stitching progress in Jan 2024.

Filming and editing by Nikki’s hubby Kristian.

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