Bonsai Tree Cross Stitch Pattern

About this bonsai cross stitch pattern

The trunk curves in an S from the pot to the top, with flat clusters of foliage branching off it in three shades of green. The pot is a shallow blue-gray rectangle, and the design is perfectly square, so it sits neatly in a frame.

It has a calm, unhurried feel that suits a home office, a tea corner or a gift for someone who looks after houseplants. The Monstera Leaf makes a good partner for a plant-themed wall, and the floral collection has more. When it’s done, how to frame and finish cross stitch shows which hoop size fits it.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 13“ x 13“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 21 DMC colors, about 21 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 989 Forest Green (629 stitches), 905 Parrot Green – Dark (601), 890 Pistachio Green – Ultra Dark (380) and 839 Beige Brown – Dark (334).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Intermediate for its palette rather than its size. At 3,126 stitches it’s roughly 30 to 50 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour, but 21 colors means a lot of thread changes, and several are used only a few times for shading. Two greens, 989 and 905, cover 1,230 stitches of the canopy between them.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Finish the trunk before the canopy. The trunk’s three browns (839, 838 and 840) set the S-curve. With it in, it’s easy to place each cluster of leaves against the bends.
• Stitch the pot as its own block. 317 Pewter Gray, 415 Pearl Gray and 03 Tin – Medium make up the pot, so work it in one go at the end rather than switching back and forth with the tree.
• Mark the rare colors. 3021, 987 and 3346 appear only two or three times each. Circle them on your printed chart so they don’t get missed.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 6.1“ x 6.1“ (15.5 x 15.5 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 5.3“ x 5.3“, and on 18-count at 4.7“ x 4.7“. For the 14-count version, an 8.5“ x 11“ frame leaves room for a mat.

Because the design is square, a square frame or a 7-inch hoop shows it off best.

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