Has anyone here ever designed cross-stitch patterns?

I've tried but I started just by doing it as I go but I gave up it was hard without a pattern to follow... I have altered my crosstiches before with a little of my own feel to it. How do you turn a pic into a pattern? I've not heard of a pattern generatorbefor? I've had graph paper and tried to draw a pic on that first but didn't look that great.....

Hello there, I recently bought a program that allows you to turn your photographs into cross-stitch patterns! It's really cool. If you go to http://www.download.com and search for with the word "cross-stitch" you can sample the programs before you purchase them. Good luck!

I designed a set of coasters for one of my friends. The designs were all based off of the logos for super heroes, but I plotted out the patterns on graph paper before I made them. I also made another friend of mine a Jack Skellington (from Nightmare Before Christmas) calendar. I designed a basic face for him, and then put different accessories and designs around his head for each month of the year. The borders of the calendar were pieced together like Sally's dress, with all sorts of weird designs.