# La Vallée des Points de Croix

> Upload a photograph and every stitch is matched to a real DMC thread, then handed back as a printable chart with the exact references and stitch counts. Free, no account, and the conversion runs entirely in the browser so the picture is never uploaded.

Turning a photograph into a cross-stitch chart means two reductions: the picture comes down to a grid where one square is one stitch, and every colour is then replaced by the nearest real DMC thread reference — what English-speaking stitchers call image to DMC cross stitch. It is not a pixel-art filter: every colour in the result has to exist as a numbered skein somebody can buy.

The site is also a gallery of what people made with it: charts anybody can take, photographs of finished work posted by the people who stitched it, and — under any chart somebody has stitched — the finished pieces that came out of that particular grid.

The conversion is not a service: it is JavaScript running on the visitor's own machine, so no photograph is uploaded to produce a chart. A visitor without an account sends nothing at all. A signed-in member's last ten charts are kept for six months, each with the reduced photograph that made it, so they can be picked up again — and can be deleted at any time. Publishing a finished piece sends the grid, a few kilobytes of thread indices, plus the photograph if the member adds one.

## Pages

- [Photo to cross-stitch chart converter](https://la-vallee.app/convert): The tool itself. Choose the width in stitches and how many thread colours, turn the picture if it came off a phone sideways, lift the colour, or cut the background away with a segmentation model that runs locally. Swap any matched thread for another of the 483 plain-cotton DMC shades, then download a PNG with the counting grid and the thread list. A sheet per single colour is available too, for telling two near-identical shades apart.
- [DMC threads — the complete stranded-cotton colour chart](https://la-vallee.app/threads): The whole DMC stranded-cotton range on one page, grouped by colour rather than by number — DMC numbers run in release order, so 150 is a bright red and 151 a pale pink — and each family sorted light to dark, across ten families from neutrals through to violets. Searchable by reference or by name in French or English. Opening a shade gives its reference, both names, its hex and RGB values, the published charts that already use it, and a link to a shop that stocks it. The speciality ranges (Metallic, Satin, Étoile, Neon) are excluded because they share their numbers with plain cotton.
- [One DMC thread, in full](https://la-vallee.app/threads/dmc-{reference}): Every one of the 484 shades has a page of its own at this address, with the reference substituted — /threads/dmc-310 is black, /threads/dmc-blanc and /threads/dmc-b5200 are the two whites, /threads/dmc-ecru is ecru. Each gives the reference, the name in French and in English, the colour as hex and RGB, which of the ten colour families it belongs to, the eight nearest shades by CIEDE2000 with how far apart they look — the answer to "what do I use instead of DMC 310" — and the charts published on this site that are stitched with it.
- [Anchor, Madeira and Cosmo threads](https://la-vallee.app/threads/anchor): the same colour card for the three other brands — https://la-vallee.app/threads/anchor (445 shades), https://la-vallee.app/threads/madeira (369 shades), https://la-vallee.app/threads/cosmo (500 shades) — and a page per reference at https://la-vallee.app/threads/{brand}-{reference}, for example https://la-vallee.app/threads/anchor-403 (black) or https://la-vallee.app/threads/madeira-2400. Each gives the colour, the DMC equivalent (from Madeira's conversion table where it has one, else the nearest by CIEDE2000), the nearest shade in each other brand and in its own. Only DMC publishes its colours: these were measured by stitchers. Cosmo's threads have numbers and no names.
- [Cross-stitch fabric size calculator](https://la-vallee.app/tools/fabric-size): Stitch count in, cloth out. Give a chart's width and height in stitches and a fabric count and it returns the finished motif, the piece to cut with 5 cm of margin on every side, the effective count when stitching over two threads, how many strands to separate, the number of squares in the grid, and how far one 8 m skein goes. Aida, evenweave and linen, over one thread or two, in centimetres or inches. The formula is stated on the page — size in centimetres is stitches ÷ (count ÷ 2.54) — with a worked example at 80 × 100 stitches, plus why the margin is five centimetres, how many strands each count wants, and the fact that 28-count linen worked over two threads is the same size as 14-count aida.
- [Colour to DMC thread — hex or RGB to a real reference](https://la-vallee.app/tools/colour-to-dmc): Paste a hex value (#1B4D3E), an RGB triplet, or pick a colour, and get the nearest DMC stranded cottons ranked by CIEDE2000 — the difference an eye reports rather than the difference between the numbers, which is what makes two dark greens come out far apart and two pale pinks come out close. Each result gives the reference, both names, how far away it looks, and a link to that thread's own page. The page also explains how to read a ΔE (under 1 is indistinguishable, over 5 is another colour), where a colour worth matching should come from, and why a screen is not a skein.
- [Cross-stitch pattern maker — draw a chart by hand](https://la-vallee.app/tools/pattern-maker): A grid editor for cross-stitch charts, in the browser. Every square is a stitch and every colour a real DMC stranded cotton, searchable by number or by name in French or English, or matched to any colour by CIEDE2000. Pencil, eraser, paint bucket, line, rectangle, circle, colour picker, left-right and top-bottom mirror symmetry, undo, zoom and pan, a thread picked out while the rest fade. Start from a blank grid up to 400 stitches a side, from a photo converted on this site (“Edit by hand”), or from a chart in the gallery whose author allows remixes (“Remix”). The chart is kept in the browser as it is drawn, downloads with its key and a sheet per thread, and can be published in the gallery, where a remix links back to the chart it came from.
- [Free cross-stitch calculators](https://la-vallee.app/tools): The small tools, listed on one page: the fabric calculator and the colour matcher, which answer the sums a stitcher does before starting, and the pattern maker, for drawing a chart by hand. None needs an account and none sends anything anywhere — everything runs in the browser.
- [Cross-stitch guides for beginners](https://la-vallee.app/guide): Fifteen guides that follow a first piece from the shop to the wall, in four parts: getting started (where to begin, what to buy, reading a chart, fabric and size), making your own chart (how many stitches wide, choosing and preparing a photo, turning it into a chart, reducing the colours, choosing a DMC palette), stitching (how many strands and preparing the thread, starting and ending without a knot, the cross stitch itself, half stitches and backstitch) and finishing (washing, pressing, framing). Each guide gives its reading time and links to the next one, with a glossary of the words they share (aida, count, strands, DMC, hoop, backstitch).
- [Cross stitch for beginners: where to start](https://la-vallee.app/guide/cross-stitch-for-beginners): The way in for someone who has never stitched: cross stitch as the counted embroidery (versus free embroidery and stamped, pre-printed kits), the short shopping list (14-count aida, DMC stranded cotton at two strands, a size 24 tapestry needle), choosing a first chart (about 50 stitches wide, under ten colours, flowers and motifs before animals and landscapes), the six steps of a first piece in order with the guide for each, a table of stitching time by motif size, the six mistakes beginners make (all six strands, crosses in mixed directions, knots, over-long thread, starting from a corner, too many colours) and what comes next.
- [What you need to start cross stitch](https://la-vallee.app/guide/materials): The short list for a first piece: 14-count aida (5.5 stitches per cm), DMC stranded cotton (six strands, 8 m skeins, about 1,500 stitches per skein at two strands), a size 24 tapestry needle (22 for 11-count, 26 for 16 and 18), small pointed scissors and an optional 15 to 20 cm hoop, with what can wait and a rough budget.
- [How to read a cross-stitch chart](https://la-vallee.app/guide/reading-a-chart): What the squares, the symbols, the heavy counting lines and the centre arrows mean, why you start from the middle, how to read the key as a shopping list, how to count without losing your place, and the other signs of shop-bought charts (partial stitches, backstitch lines). For someone holding their first chart.
- [Choosing your fabric and working out the size](https://la-vallee.app/guide/fabric-and-size): What a fabric's count means, the one-line sum from stitches to centimetres (stitches ÷ 5.5 on 14-count aida), why 28-count linen over two is the same size as 14-count aida, the 5 cm margin, a table of sizes, how many strands at each count, how many skeins a chart needs, and how to prepare the fabric before the first stitch.
- [Choosing the size of a cross-stitch chart](https://la-vallee.app/guide/chart-size): How wide a chart should be, in stitches, for each kind of subject (25 to 40 for a small motif, 70 to 100 for an animal, 100 to 150 for a detailed pet portrait, 120 and up for a face), working back from a frame's opening (centimetres × 5.5 on 14-count), how stitching time grows with the area (about 350 stitches an hour), and why small charts need fewer colours.
- [Which photo makes a good cross-stitch chart](https://la-vallee.app/guide/choosing-a-photo): Why the subject must fill the frame, why contrast matters more than sharpness, what to do about a busy background and the light, and how animals, portraits, flowers and landscapes each behave when reduced to a grid. Includes the honest warning that faces are the hardest subject and need about 120 stitches to look like anybody.
- [Preparing a picture before turning it into a chart](https://la-vallee.app/guide/preparing-a-photo): The edits to make on a phone before converting a photo: start from the original rather than a compressed copy, crop tight, straighten, brighten a dark photo without blowing the highlights, blur or remove a busy background, erase distractions while keeping the catchlight in an animal's eye, and compare two versions in the converter.
- [How to turn a photo into a cross-stitch chart](https://la-vallee.app/guide/photo-to-chart): The site's free converter step by step: dropping in the photo, choosing the width in stitches (40 to 50 for a small design, 60 to 90 for an animal, 120 for a portrait) and the number of DMC threads (8 to 15 for most photos), brightening the colours, removing the background, swapping a thread, editing by hand, then downloading and printing the chart with its key.
- [Reducing the number of colours in a cross-stitch chart](https://la-vallee.app/guide/reducing-colours): What confetti stitches are and how to spot a chart with too many colours, how many threads to keep for each kind of subject (3 to 8 for a graphic motif, up to 15 to 25 for a portrait), lowering the converter's thread count until a detail disappears, merging near-identical threads such as the DMC whites (Blanc, B5200, Ecru, 3865), keeping the single stitches that matter, and tidying the rest by hand.
- [Choosing your DMC colours: building a palette](https://la-vallee.app/guide/choosing-colours): Three ways to build a thread palette: take the thread lists of gallery charts by subject, pull a 5 to 12-thread palette from any photo with the converter and reuse it in the pattern maker or as your own threads, or start from one thread page and its monochrome, analogous and complementary palettes in real DMC cottons, plus the charts that already use it. With habits for value contrast, three tones per colour, fabric colour, and checking skeins in daylight.
- [How many strands, and how to prepare the thread](https://la-vallee.app/guide/preparing-thread): How many strands of stranded cotton for each fabric (3 on 11-count, 2 on 14, usually 2 on 16 and 18, 1 for backstitch), why fabric shows between stitches and how to fix it, getting thread out of the skein without a tangle, cutting about 50 cm, separating the six strands one at a time, threading the needle with the fold method or a threader, and letting the needle hang to untwist the thread.
- [Starting and finishing a thread without a knot](https://la-vallee.app/guide/starting-and-finishing): The loop start (one strand folded in two, for an even number of strands), trapping the tail under the first stitches, the away knot, ending a thread under four or five stitches on the back, and when to carry thread across the back rather than end it.
- [How to cross stitch: one at a time or in rows](https://la-vallee.app/guide/cross-stitch): The movement on aida (bottom left to top right, then bottom right to top left), the one rule (every stitch crosses the same way), the English one-at-a-time method and the Danish row method, shared holes, the order to stitch in, and how to unpick.
- [Half stitch, three-quarter stitch and backstitch](https://la-vallee.app/guide/half-stitches-and-backstitch): How shop-bought charts show half, quarter and three-quarter stitches and backstitch lines, how to work each one on aida (piercing the centre of the block for quarter stitches), backstitch with one strand last over the crosses, and the French knot for an eye.
- [Washing, pressing and framing your cross stitch](https://la-vallee.app/guide/finishing): Checking that colours will not run, hand washing at about 30 °C without rubbing or wringing, pressing face down on a towel so the stitches keep their texture, lacing the piece over card for a frame (with a mount under glass), finishing it in its hoop with felt, and other finishes.
- [Questions and answers about turning a photo into a cross-stitch chart](https://la-vallee.app/faq): Twenty-three answers in five groups. What a chart made from a photograph is and what “image to DMC” means; how it differs from a pixel-art filter; how long a chart takes to stitch. Then what happens to your photograph (the conversion runs on your own machine; without an account it never leaves it), how many colours to choose, what the settings do, what is in the downloaded file, whether you may sell what you stitch — and where to find inspiration, including how to see a chart already stitched by somebody else before starting it.
- [Cross-stitch pattern gallery — free charts to browse and take](https://la-vallee.app/gallery): Charts made on this site and shared by the people who made them, browsable by subject and free to download with their DMC thread lists and stitch counts. A chart somebody has already stitched links to the finished pieces that came out of it, so a pattern can be seen on real fabric before it is started. An optional account is what lets you add your own.
- [Finished cross-stitch pieces, photographed by the people who stitched them](https://la-vallee.app/gallery/stitched): Photographs of finished cross-stitch, posted by the people who stitched it — the place to look for inspiration, and for what a chart really becomes in thread. A piece here needs no chart from this site; plenty were stitched from patterns found elsewhere, so it is a record of real work rather than a catalogue of what the converter can make.
- [Charts by subject](https://la-vallee.app/gallery/{subject}): the gallery narrowed to one subject, with a short guide to stitching it and the DMC threads it tends to use. Subjects: pets, flowers, landscapes, motifs, halloween, christmas (for example https://la-vallee.app/gallery/christmas). A subject with no creation yet is marked noindex.
- [About us](https://la-vallee.app/about): Who makes it, where it came from, and why it is free and browser-only.
- [Contact and legal notice](https://la-vallee.app/legal): Who publishes the site, where it is hosted, and how to reach a person about a bug, an idea or a request concerning stored data.
- [Site map](https://la-vallee.app/site-map): Every page of the site on one page, under the footer's four headings: the converter and the tools, the two galleries, the DMC colour chart by family, the guide and its articles, and the pages about the site. Built from the same registries as this file, so a new page appears in it on its own.

## About

- Free to use: no account to convert, no watermark, nothing to buy.
- A gallery of charts to take and of finished pieces to look at, with each stitched chart linking to the work made from it.
- Private by construction — the tool has no upload path for a photograph.
- Matches against 483 plain-cotton DMC shades, chosen by CIEDE2000 rather than by nearest RGB. Metallic, satin and Étoile ranges are excluded because they share colour codes with plain cotton.
- The downloaded chart names real references with a stitch count for each, so it can be taken to a shop.
- Two languages, one page each: French at the addresses above, English at the same address under /en — /threads and /en/threads are the same page. Both are listed individually in the sitemap, and every page declares the pair as hreflang alternates.
- Published by Felar, an individual, from a home server in France. Contact and the full legal notice are on /legal.

## Optional

- [Everything in one file](https://la-vallee.app/llms-full.txt): the full description.
- [Official information for AI assistants](https://la-vallee.app/llm-info): what the site is and is not, its main pages and how to cite it, as a page in French and English (https://la-vallee.app/en/llm-info) and as raw Markdown (https://la-vallee.app/llm-info.md).
- [Sitemap](https://la-vallee.app/sitemap.xml): every indexable route in both languages, including all 484 thread pages one by one, plus every published chart and member — it is built per request from the live table, so it is the only exhaustive list of this site that cannot go stale.