It started with my grandmother
I learned to cross stitch as a kid, from my grandmother. My first project was a puppy's face — a kit from the local craft store.
I don't stitch much these days. My stitching hours go into the software now. But I haven't forgotten that puppy, and that feeling is what I'm trying to build a tool around.
Lately I've also been fascinated by sashiko, the Japanese tradition of mending and decorating fabric with simple running stitches.
Twelve years of building creative tools
I've been writing software for more than 12 years. It started with an internship at Intel and led to Inkarnate, a map editor that artists and game masters use to draw whole fantasy worlds. That's where I fell for creative tools. The hard part is making features feel effortless: a brush that keeps up with your hand, an undo you never have to think about, a canvas that stays fast when there's a lot on it.
My background is in math and algorithms, and it shows up all over Stitchmate. Colors are matched by how your eye sees them, not by raw numbers. The converter groups colors into regions you can actually stitch instead of scattering confetti. And every stitch is drawn on your graphics card, so a big chart pans and zooms as smoothly as a small one.
Now it's my full-time job
Today I work on Stitchmate full-time, as a completely independent business. There are no investors and no corporate roadmap. The only people I answer to are the people who use it.
That's only possible because of you: everyone who bought a pass, reported a bug, or told a friend about it. Thank you. Really.
This was my dream — a creative tool, for a craft I love, made my way. I love it, even though it's harder than I imagined. I'm the developer, the designer, and the person who answers your emails. 🙂
A straight answer about AI
I use AI tools when I write code, like most software engineers do these days. As a one-person shop, it helps me fix things and ship faster.
That doesn't make Stitchmate something vibe-coded in a week by prompting a chatbot. It's handcrafted: every tool, every screen, and every printed chart is something I designed and engineered myself, with a lot of attention and, honestly, a lot of love. AI is a power tool in my workshop. The design decisions, the math, and the care are mine.
Stitchmate itself is AI-free, on purpose. There are no generative models inside it. Photo conversion, color matching, and confetti cleanup are classic algorithms: color science and math.
There are two reasons. Generating an image takes far more energy than running an algorithm, and I'd rather keep Stitchmate's footprint small. And if you do want an AI image to stitch, a dedicated tool like Midjourney will make a better one than anything I could build in — more efficient and more practical. Make the image there, then bring it here to turn it into a pattern.
Fair prices, wherever you live
Stitchmate's prices adjust to your country, using purchasing power parity. A pass should cost about the same share of a paycheck in Manila as it does in Minneapolis. A hobby shouldn't depend on which currency you earn in.
When I'm not coding
I play bass, and my favorite evenings are jams: no set list, everyone listening to each other, something new showing up out of nowhere. Honestly, it's not that different from designing a pattern.
I live in Dilijan, a small town surrounded by forested mountains. It's a very good place to walk through a hard problem. And yes, I'm a cat person.
Say hi
I read every message myself. If something's broken, you have an idea, or you'd like to work together — as a designer, a shop, a guild, or a teacher — write to me. Feature requests don't go through a product team. They come straight to me, and I'm the one who designs, builds, and fixes every part of it.