Baby Raccoon with a Cookie Cross Stitch Pattern

About this raccoon cross stitch pattern

The raccoon holds a cookie almost as wide as its own body, with one bite already gone. Its black mask, white muzzle and ringed tail are drawn with bold outlines, and it stands on a strip of grass with clover and a single yellow dandelion. It’s a cartoon rather than a wildlife study: the fun is in the size of the cookie and the pleased look on the raccoon’s face.

It suits a kids’ room, a kitchen wall or a gift for anyone who never says no to a snack. For a matching pair in a child’s room, the Little Fox Drawing with a Crayon has the same friendly style, and our nursery round-up has more ideas.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 16“ x 18“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 17 DMC colors, about 18 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 535 Ash Gray – Very Light (2,840 stitches), 451 Shell Gray – Dark (1,906) and B5200 Snow White (1,855).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Intermediate. The shapes are big and the outlines are bold, so the chart is easy to read, but it’s a long project: 13,831 stitches, roughly 140 to 230 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour. About 38% of the area is bare fabric around the raccoon, so there’s no background to fill in.

What moves it past Beginner is a few small areas where several colors sit close together, mainly the cookie and the dandelion.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Stitch the grays before the white. B5200 Snow White sits right against the dark gray of the mask. Finishing the 535 and 451 areas first stops dark fibers from dragging into the white.
• Work the cookie in one sitting. Four browns share that small space: 801 Coffee Brown – Dark (130 stitches), 739 (47), 435 (46) and 841 (31). Thread all four before you start so the chips stay evenly spaced.
• Mark the dandelion before you reach it. The flower in the lower right uses three yellows, 726, 307 and 3821, with 119 stitches between them. Highlight their squares on your printed chart so you don’t mix them up.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 9.9“ x 11.6“ (25.1 x 29.5 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 8.6“ x 10.2“, and on 18-count at 7.7“ x 9.1“. For the 14-count version, a 12“ x 16“ frame leaves room for a mat.

The white muzzle and tail rings stand out best against a plain white or cream mat, which keeps the frame from competing with the raccoon.

What’s in the free PDF

• A cover page and a one-page overview with a preview of the design
• The chart, split across as many printable pages as you choose, in color or black and white, with a symbol for every DMC color, center lines, a mini-map showing which part of the design each page covers and a color key on every page
• The thread list: DMC number, color name, number of stitches and skeins to buy for each color
• The finished size on 11-, 14-, 16-, 18- and 28-count Aida