Christmas Tree Cross Stitch Patterns

The past couple of years we haven’t put up a Christmas tree because we have cats that can’t be trusted. I’m thinking of getting a tabletop tree this year, but I also think it would be fun to craft a bunch of different trees to hang on the wall or have on tables or on the fireplace as decoration.

Whether you want to stitch a single Christmas tree or a whole bunch, here’s a fun collection of Christmas tree cross stitch patterns.

I love this realistic Christmas tree pattern from Wild Bluebell Patterns. You can leave it plain as it is or add a little bit of snow or ornaments to the branches if you like. Or even sew on beads or sequins instead of embellishing it with stitching. It’s 110 by 174 stitches so you have a lot of room to play. You can get the pattern on Etsy.

For something a little more whimsical that can use up all the little bits of thread left over from other projects, check out these colorful scrappy trees in post from Etsy seller Schultzs Stitches. All the patterns and colors here are so much fun, and the project measures 93 by 99 stitches.

This scroll Christmas tree cross stitch pattern is also lots of fun and has a different look from your traditional tree. It uses three colors and measures 73 by 110 stitches. You can grab it from FloReen Studio on Etsy.

This Christmas tree is housing a collection of animals including birds and squirrels, worked in different colors. It’s a free download from DMC via Lovecrafts, and it’s rated for intermediate stitchers.

How about a tree made out of trees? These tiny trees would be super cute as a border on another project, or stitch them up sampler style as shown. This pattern is from Climbing Goat Designs on Etsy and measures 49 by 74 stitches, and uses just four colors.

This collection of fun patterned trees would look cute in their own frames hung together, or you could put them onto one bigger piece of fabric in a single frame. This pattern set includes six trees, but the same designer (Nikki Pattern on Etsy) has a set with four designs, and one with 10 designs, so you can pick a set you like that suits your needs.

Next Pattern:

35+ Sunflower Cross Stitch Patterns

I love the look of variegated cross stitch floss and how it makes it possible to stitch with a variety of colors without changing thread, giving your project more depth and a more complex look without you having to do anything different.

Or at least not much different. I recently came across this blog post from The Copper Fox all about how to use variegated floss and it noted that many people would say it’s a good idea to complete a whole stitch (when you’re stitching whole cross stitches) with the floss before going on to the next stitch. Most of us stitch row by row, but of course if you do that with variegated yarn, it could change color along the way and you’ll end up with stitches that are half one color and half another color or a different shade.

Of course that makes total sense but I’d never thought about it.

The post includes swatches with different kinds of variegated threads to show the different between working stitch by stitch or row by row, and it doesn’t make a huge different over the small area shown but I can see how it might make a difference if you had really long rows or if you just want to make sure your stitches are a single color whenever possible.

In addition to this experiment, the post talks about other ways to work with multicolored floss, including deliberately mixing the colors among the strands of floss you are stitching with and stitching in a different order instead of right to left and top to bottom (or whatever direction you typically work) to get different effects from the thread.

It’s fun to geek out on this stuff because it can make a difference if you want to play with it, or you can just stitch on without giving it much thought, and both will give you good results.

Check out all the experiments at The Copper Fox.

Do you do anything different when you stitch with variegated floss? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: The Copper Fox]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?