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.

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]

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