A method for embroidering includes receiving a digitized representation of an image, determining grain structures for a plurality of locations (10, 20, 30, 40) in the digitized representations, the plurality of locations (10, 20, 30, 40) including a first location (10) and a second location (20), embroidering a representation of the first location (10) using cross stitch patterns, when a grain structure for the first location (10) indicates a bi-directional grain structure, and embroidering a representation of the first location (10) using uni-directional stitch patterns, when the grain structure for the first location (10) indicates a uni-directional grain structure.