| Size | 25 × 25 stitches |
|---|---|
| Colours | 5 · DMC |
| Total stitches | 289 |
| Difficulty | Easy (2/5) |
| Finished on 14-count | 1.8 × 1.8 in (4.5 × 4.5 cm) |
| Finished on 16-count | 1.6 × 1.6 in (4 × 4 cm) |
| Finished on 18-count | 1.4 × 1.4 in (3.5 × 3.5 cm) |
| Licence | CC BY-NC 4.0 — free for personal use with credit |
Materials
About this design
Small enough to finish in an evening, this mandala is designed for the tree. The centre is a stepped red medallion in DMC 321 Red with darker accents of 498 Red Dark around a small gold centre of 783 Topaz Medium. A ring of 890 Pistachio Green Ultra Very Dark, a deep pine colour, circles the medallion, and the outer edge is a scalloped band of 3712 Salmon Medium studded with gold. Red, green and gold read as Christmas without needing a single bauble or holly leaf, so the ornament can also stay out all winter.
How to stitch it
This is a good chart for practising counting on a small scale. Stitch the gold centre first, then the red medallion around it; the green ring sits a few stitches away from the medallion, so count the gap carefully on each side before you begin it. The outer scalloped band alternates salmon and gold, and both colours travel diagonally around the corners, so work it as a continuous journey rather than in separate pieces. The design is symmetrical both ways, so if you lose your place you can check any stitch against its mirror image.
Making the ornament
At 25 stitches square the design is about 1.8 inches across on 14-count Aida and about 1.4 inches on 18-count. Mount it in a 3-inch embroidery hoop with a ribbon loop, or trim the fabric to a circle, back it with red felt and blanket-stitch around the edge with gold thread. A batch of six makes a quick set of gift toppers.
Colour plan
DMC 783 Topaz Medium does the most work, 27% of the 289 stitches, followed by DMC 890 Pistachio Grn Ult V D at 25%. Every colour is used at least 28 times, so there are no tiny one-off details to hunt for. 54% of the grid is left empty.
Working notes
No square stands alone in its colour, so every colour works up in solid blocks. The busiest row changes colour 16 times.
Anchor equivalents
The nearest Anchor colour for each DMC colour in this pattern, measured as ΔE 2000: up to 3 is very close, up to 6 close, up to 10 approximate.
This is an original CraftPatterns design, licensed CC BY-NC 4.0: stitch it, share it and gift what you make — please credit craftpatterns.app and don't sell the pattern itself. Want to change it? Open it in the cross stitch editor.
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