I was asked if I used software to draft my pattern for my January piece and I thought it might be of general interest - I used EasyBead, available here - http://easybeadpatterns.com/
It's free, it's easy and you can upload photographs. However, like every pattern generator I've ever tried, it requires a great deal of editing. I consider the pattern it generates only a starting point; I spent a lot of time refining the image before I started beading. Hope this is helpful!
Thanks so much for all the kind comments regarding my project
