Cross Stitch a Masterpiece with DMC

March 20, 2026 by Sarah White

I was looking through the free cross stitch patterns at DMC the other day (always a worth use of time because they’ve got some great stuff!) and I came across this set of patterns that are tiny representations of famous works of art.

First there’s The Kiss by Gustav Klimt, which will use lots of your yellow thread and give you a lot of practice back stitching. The design is 77 by 50 stitches and uses 17 colors. There are five different colors of French knots and five colors of backstitch (one of which is not already used in the cross stitching itself).

On 14 count fabric the design comes out to 3.5 by 5.5 inches, or 9 by 14 cm. On the model some of the French knots looked like beads to me, which would also be a fun addition.

Then there’s Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night. This one uses 20 colors and includes some backstitching, but just a single color on this one. The design is 55 by 69 stitches, which comes out to 5.1 by 4 inches stitched on 14 count fabric (that’s 13 by 10 cm). The pattern page for this one shows it stitches on a little zip topped bag, which sounds like a lot of work if the bag was made before it was stitched on, but it’s still really pretty.

Finally there is a cross stitched version of The Scream by Edvard Munch (I’d like this one on a bag for period products, LOL). This one is 66 by 50 stitches and calls for 17 colors. There are French knots in one color and back stitch in four colors, all of which are already used in the design.

On 14 count fabric this one would be 3.5 by 4.7 inches, or 9 by 12 cm.

You can always make them bigger by using a fabric with a smaller count, or just keep them little! They’re all rated as intermediate cross stitch patterns, but being allover stitching (and often lots of finishing details) you definitely want a few bigger projects under your belt before you try these.

[Photo: DMC]

Have you read?

How to Add Text to a Cross Stitch Project

One of the easiest ways to make a cross stitch project more personal is to add text to it. Whether you’re adding the names of people getting married to a generic floral cross stitch design, birth information to a project on theme with the new baby’s room or just adding a word or phrase that’s meaningful to you, adding words to cross stitch projects make them that much more special.

But if you’re not working with a project that already has text built in, or you want to change the text that’s there, that can feel a little daunting.

Caterpillar Cross Stitch has a great guide to adding names and words (as well as numbers) to projects, which talks you through what to consider and how to actually go about adding text to a cross stitch project successfully.

You’ll need to think about what kind of font you want to use and if you’re using back stitched letters or larger filled letters, how much space you need and how the letters work together in the text you’re planning to make sure it’s readable.

Their post includes common pitfalls such as running out a space or ending up with text that’s off center and how to avoid them (spoiler: chart out your text before you stitch!).

The whole post is really helpful if you’ve never added lettering to a project before and don’t know where to start. I like to use block letters in back stitch when learning how to add text to cross stitch, but of course there are tons of lettering options. Check out this collection of cross stitch fonts if you want to see some different things you can try.

And head over to Caterpillar Cross Stitch to get more tips for how to successfully add lettering to your cross stitch projects. They also have their own alphabet and number charts you can buy to add text to your stitching.

Have you ever added text to a cross stitch project? I’d love to hear how it went!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]