Cross Stitch Patterns for Ramadan

Ramadan is a time of fasting, prayer and religious reflection, and adding some Ramadan cross stitch to the mix is sure to help you reflect on the season. Check out these Ramadan cross stitch patterns to stitch before or during the month.

Lanterns are a common symbol of Ramadan (probably because the fast is broken at night, so you need some festive light), and lanterns decorate this Ramadan cross stitch pattern from Dizzy Digital Craft Co. The pattern is 173 by 173 stitches, which comes out to 12.36 inches of 31.39 cm square on 14 count fabric. It uses seven colors.

Or you can just stitch some really colorful, dramatic lanterns for Ramadan that you can use to decorate the house all year. This design from Sawanita uses 25 colors to make the lanterns look like they are glowing. If you want to stitch it on 14 count fabric it will come out toe about 15 by 19.46 inches, or 38.1 by 49.9 cm, as the stitch count is 286 by 201. I love the blue fabric used in the sample but you could also use white or cream.

This crescent moon and star design from Tatreez HubRana gives Ramadan cross stitch a folk are twist, with the design being made out of motifs inspired by the classic Moon of Bethlehem design. It’s perfect to stitch up and hang in a 12-inch hoop, as the design is about 10.7 inches (21.2 cm) tall.

This set of Ramadan cards to cross stitch from World of Cross Stitching includes some for Ramadan and some for Eid (which is the end of Ramadan). Designed by Perry Abdel-Hadi, there are six charts in all and they are all 80 by 80 stitches. That’s 5.75 inches or 14.5 cm square.

Or you can stitch up a Ramadan bookmark to remind you of the season while you read. This design is from Povitrulya Handmade and includes lanterns and a moon as well as the words Ramadan Mubarak. The pattern uses eight colors and measures 30 by 99 stitches. It’s meant to be worked on 16 count fabric for a finished measurement of 5.1 by 7.9 inches, or 13 by 20 cm.

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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]

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