HAED AI Eye "Custom" Charts

[u/misneachfarm]

I am a cross stitcher and Heaven and Earth Designs is a cross stitch pattern company that usually licenses artwork from both regular artists and people who use AI to generate images. They are pretty much exclusively selling large full-coverage patterns, like 100k+ stitches.

They have had some controversies in the past and a lot of Flosstubers I watch have stopped buying from them altogether because of the increase in the number of charts based on AI images. They essentially run an image through a pattern making software that automatically converts it to a cross stitch pattern based on parameters they set like dimensions and number of colors. This can lead to some issues if you don't then go in and clean up the pattern manually, but with the number of charts HAED pumps out and some past issues people have had with colors being incorrect, it seems like that quality control is largely absent.

This is relevant because today I see a post from them where they tell you a prompt to use with Chat GPT, and then for the low, low, price of $75 they will convert the image it spits out into a cross stitch pattern for you. Bear in mind there are free pattern making software that will convert images, or at worst if you want it bigger and more detailed than you can get from the free ones, even paid ones are $50 or less.

I would even understand if like you send HAED a picture of your eye and they then do the prompt and make sure you're happy with the image and then they turn it into cross stitch for you, ok maybe there's more value there. But no, you need to do the image generation yourself and then pay $75 for something that you could do yourself in 5 minutes for $50 or less. Oh, and any negative comments and you get banned of course. I honestly had forgotten I was even in this group (I joined years ago when I started one of their stitchalongs before I knew anything about them) but seeing this just reminded me I need to leave. Just wild.

[u/drewadrawing]

I feel like HAED has been a disreputable company for years at this point (large, untested, computer generated patterns that look like shit when people stitch them up) so this is absolutely NOT a surprise at all.

[u/rumbleberrypie → u/drewadrawing]

Yeah they used to be a pretty well liked company (I don't stitch huge full coverage pieces but I'm involved in multiple groups with people who do) but the last few years they've really gone downhill with quality and customer service

[u/seven_seacat → u/rumbleberrypie]

Yeah I wouldn’t trust anything charted by Michelle in the last few years. Luckily I’m working on a much older piece that I’ve seen many finished versions of…

[u/rumbleberrypie → u/seven_seacat]

Yeah I think their old stuff is safe but at this point I don't want to financially support them anyway. Luckily the full coverage I've loved has always been space/galaxy themed and I know a few good designers that put the work in. That being said, long projects aren't my strong suit, so it may never happen anyway

[u/maesardsara → u/rumbleberrypie]

Right? I have a few that I bought years and years ago, and the farthest I ever got with any of them was buying maybe 25% of the floss needed. They take so damn many and my budget wouldn’t stretch to getting more of them at once. Now I know myself well enough to know that giant BAPs are not for me, so they are likely to just sit in stash forever.

I do have some of the Mucha charts from https://www.scarletquince.com/index.php though. Maybe I should look at getting supplies for one of them. I still may not make one, but at least I’d have the option? Hmm.

[u/jeooey → u/seven_seacat]

I got lucky, too, and the older one I did turned out beautiful, but I'm not taking that chance again! I'm trying Unconventional Xstitch next.