| Size | 40 × 40 stitches |
|---|---|
| Colours | 4 · 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
The quatrefoil, a four-lobed shape built from overlapping circles, appears on tiles, screens and textiles from Gothic churches to Moroccan courtyards. Here each quatrefoil is a solid turquoise shape outlined in deep teal, with a small golden cross at its centre. The shapes sit in a regular grid on a cream background, and small golden diamonds with teal centres fill the spaces where four tiles meet, so the eye reads the background as a lattice too. The chart shows four full tiles, and the pattern repeats every 20 stitches in both directions.
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. Work the teal outlines first, then fill the turquoise inside them and the cream background last.
Colour plan
DMC 3865 Winter White does the most work, 40% of the 1,600 stitches, followed by DMC 3849 Teal Green Light at 39%. Every colour is used at least 80 times, so there are no tiny one-off details to hunt for. Every square of the grid is filled.
Working notes
20 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 12 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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