Gingerbread Cottage in a Snowy Forest Cross Stitch Pattern

About this gingerbread house cross stitch pattern

A gingerbread cottage sits in a clearing, seen from above at an angle, with thick white icing dripping off the roof, colored candy buttons along the eaves, lit windows and a chimney puffing smoke. Red-and-white candy-cane fences run around the yard, a stone path leads to the door, and snowy pine trees crowd in on every side under a dark blue sky.

Every square of the chart is stitched, so it finishes as a full scene rather than a figure on bare fabric. It’s a long project for a Christmas wall or a family heirloom. The Gnome Decorating a Christmas Tree is another full Christmas scene of the same size; our large cross stitch round-up compares the big projects, and the winter round-up has smaller holiday designs.

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: 25 DMC colors, about 39 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are BLANC White (11,636 stitches), 3847 Teal Green – Dark (8,478) and 310 Black (6,343).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Advanced because of its size and full coverage. At 40,000 stitches it takes roughly 400 to 667 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour, and none of the fabric stays bare. The snowy trees mix white, two blues and dark teal in small broken patches, which means a lot of counting.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Buy the big colors in bulk. BLANC White needs 7 skeins, 3847 Teal Green – Dark 5 and 310 Black 4. Buying them at the same time keeps each color from one dye lot across the whole forest.
• Stitch the cottage first, the forest last. The house, fence and path are the part people will look at. Finish them while you’re fresh, then fill the trees around them, where a small counting slip won’t show.
• Use a gridded chart for the snow. BLANC, 3761 Sky Blue – Light (3,416 stitches) and 3760 Wedgwood – Medium (1,906) break up into scattered patches on the trees. Print the chart large or use a pen to mark every finished 10 x 10 block.

Size, fabric and framing

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

As a full scene it can also be framed without a mat in a square frame, close to the edge of the stitching.

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