| Size | 40 × 40 stitches |
|---|---|
| Colours | 5 · DMC |
| Total stitches | 1,600 |
| Difficulty | Easy (2/5) |
| Finished on 18-mesh | 2.2 × 2.2 in (5.6 × 5.6 cm) |
| Licence | CC BY-NC 4.0 — free for personal use with credit |
Materials
About this design
Flame stitch, also called bargello or Florentine work, is usually worked in long upright stitches, but its zigzag peaks look just as striking in tent stitch. This chart repeats a ten-stitch peak across the canvas, rising steeply on one side and falling on the other, and each band of colour follows the same outline as the one above it. The colours run from dark navy through peacock teal and two turquoises to ecru and back again, so the light and dark bands alternate in a slow wave down the piece. Because the pattern simply repeats, you can extend it to any width.
How to stitch it
Every square of the chart is one tent stitch, and the whole canvas is covered, background included. At 40 × 40 stitches the design measures about 10.2 × 10.2 cm on 10-mesh canvas, 7.8 × 7.8 cm on 13-mesh and 5.6 × 5.6 cm on 18-mesh, so choose the mesh to suit the size you want and leave at least 5 cm (2 in) of bare canvas all round for finishing. The colour key uses DMC numbers: use stranded or pearl cotton on finer canvas, or match the shades in tapestry wool on 10-mesh, and stitch a small test patch to check the canvas threads are covered. Once you have stitched the first band, every other band follows its line, so you rarely need to look at the chart.
Colour plan
DMC 598 Turquoise Light does the most work, 27% of the 1,600 stitches, followed by DMC 3810 Turquoise Dark at 25%. Every colour is used at least 176 times, so there are no tiny one-off details to hunt for. Every square of the grid is filled.
Working notes
33 squares stand alone in their colour, with no same-coloured neighbour along a side; stitch those as you pass rather than starting a new thread for each. The busiest row changes colour 39 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 needlepoint editor.
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