Elf Child and Owl on the Moon Cross Stitch Pattern

About this elf and owl cross stitch pattern

A pointy-eared child with long dark hair sleeps curled on the inside of a crescent moon, holding a little gray owl close, both with their eyes shut. Tiny stars dot the child’s gown, and faint constellation lines are traced across the moon.

Moons and sleeping children are classic nursery themes, and almost the whole palette is blue, so it feels calm from across a room. It’s a lovely baby-shower or new-baby gift, big enough to hang above a crib or a reading chair on its own. For a quicker owl in the same night-and-magic theme, see the Wizard Owl with Star Wand; our nursery round-up has more ideas. It also appears in our large cross stitch patterns comparison.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 21“ x 21“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 17 DMC colors, about 27 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 312 Baby Blue – Very Dark (8,065 stitches), 791 Cornflower Blue – Very Dark (5,978), 939 Navy Blue – Very Dark (4,247) and 334 Baby Blue – Medium (2,884).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Advanced. At 28,018 stitches it’s a long project, roughly 280 to 470 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour. Four close blues cover most of the moon and gown, with the stars and constellation lines picked out between them, and those color changes inside the gown are where it gets demanding.

Our guide to planning a large cross stitch project covers buying thread and fabric for a piece this size.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Stitch the moon in sections. A 200-stitch-wide curve of blue gives you very few landmarks to count from. Gridded fabric or a water-soluble grid pen helps you keep your place.
• Buy the big blue from one dye lot. 312 Baby Blue – Very Dark takes 5 skeins on its own, and on a large flat area of one color, a change of dye lot shows.
• Mark the owl’s beak. The smallest color, 3855 Autumn Gold – Light, is just 5 stitches and forms the beak. Mark it so you don’t finish the owl and wonder where the gold went.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 14.3“ x 15.0“ (36.3 x 38.1 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 12.5“ x 13.1“, and on 18-count at 11.1“ x 11.7“. For the 14-count version, an 18“ x 24“ frame leaves room for a mat.

A deep navy mat continues the night sky past the edge of the stitching and makes the moon glow.

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