Quick Cross Designs With Cross Stitcher

Explore the creative power of Cross Stitcher a versatile tool perfect for creating embroidery designs for gifts, holidays, or year-round projects. Cross Stitcher makes designing simple and intuitive, whether you’re on Windows or Mac.

When you open the Cross Stitcher module/app, the Wizard (Windows) or Assistant (Mac) launches automatically to guide your creative process.

Four Ways to Start Creating

Create QuickCross Design

Step through the process of turning artwork into cross stitches.

Load Picture for New Cross Stitch Design

Find and optimize artwork to use as a background.
Then, use tools from the Create tab (Control Panel on Mac) to add crosses, outlines, lettering, or French knots.

Load Existing Cross Stitch Design

Browse to your .krz working files so you can rework or complete existing designs.

Start a New Cross Stitch Design With No Picture

Open a blank hoop with a pre-sized grid to design your own cross-stitch masterpiece from scratch.

Creating Seasonal and Holiday Designs

This month, we’re using the Create QuickCross Design feature to quickly transform artwork into holiday-themed cross stitch.

When you select Create QuickCross Design, then click Next (Windows) or Continue (Mac), choose whether to:

• Load an existing image (Load a Picture / Select File), or
• Create new artwork in Draw & Paint using Create New Picture

Explore the Samples → Digitizing → Pics folders for ready-to-use artwork. Many designs are seasonal and perfect for cross-stitch conversions.

For example:

• 💘 Select the Heart for a Valentine’s Day project

• 🍀 Choose the Shamrock for St. Patrick’s Day

• 🎉 Browse other folders for images that make charming embroideries

Rotate or crop the artwork as needed before moving forward.

Setting Up Your Cross Stitch

Next, configure the Cross Size, then set Width and Height in crosses.
The Wizard/Assistant will automatically:

• Match thread colors
• Suggest stitch counts
• Display a full preview

You can:

• Adjust the number of colors
• Delete or refine thread selections
• Apply changes to update the preview

The Preview page shows:

• Total stitches
• Finished size
• Number of thread colors

This lets you make additional changes before finalizing your design.

A Little Bit More!

Shown above in Life View, zoomed and rotated for clarity.

Want to quickly remove the extra white cross-stitch background?

Use Erase → Cross Flood Fill in the Create tab (Mac: Control Panel):

1. Select Erase

2. Choose Cross Flood Fill

3. Click in the unwanted white cross areas outside the heart

All the background crosses disappear in one click!

Tip: Don’t forget to turn off the Erase tool when finished.

Cross Stitcher also includes tools for:

• Editing individual crosses
• Adding lettering
• Creating outlines
• And much more!