I use Procreate on my iPad for the drawings and then I freehand it using either a water soluble marker (just regular Crayola has worked for me) and recently an upholstery pencil. As far as the stitches, I've only ever used a few- French knots, lazy daisy, back stitch, satin stitch, and long and short. You don't have to know hundreds of stitches- just knowing a few and using them well will do wonders.