Kittens in a Gift Box Cross Stitch Pattern

About this Christmas kittens cross stitch pattern

A fluffy ginger kitten and a gray tabby kitten sit side by side in an open cardboard box, their paws resting on the edge. Each has round eyes, a pink nose and rosy cheeks, with a sprig of greenery and red berries on its head. The box is wrapped in red, cream and green plaid, and long red ribbons curl out across the ground in front of it.

It’s a large, cheerful Christmas piece for a cat lover, wide enough to hang over a sofa or a fireplace. For a smaller piece with the same berries, stitch the Beeswax Candle with Holly; our cat cross stitch patterns round-up has more cats.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 22“ x 18“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 14 DMC colors, about 18 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 950 Desert Sand – Light (5,090 stitches), 939 Navy Blue – Very Dark (3,128) and 01 Tin – White (2,428).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Advanced, mostly for its size. At 21,207 stitches it takes roughly 212 to 353 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour. The plaid on the box also needs steady counting, because its lines run at an angle across both sides.

Read our guide to planning a large cross stitch project before you buy fabric and thread.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Stitch the plaid lines before the squares. Work the green 3362 Pine Green – Dark stripes across the box first. They divide the sides into small blocks, and the red and cream squares between them are then easy to count.
• Buy three skeins of 950. Desert Sand – Light covers 5,090 stitches, nearly a quarter of the design, mostly on the box flaps. Buying them together keeps one dye lot across the whole box.
• Don’t mix the two whites. 01 Tin – White (2,428) is a pale gray used mostly on the tabby kitten; B5200 Snow White (304) is the bright white on the muzzles and paws. Keep them on separate labeled bobbins.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 15.7“ x 11.7“ (39.9 x 29.7 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 13.8“ x 10.2“, and on 18-count at 12.2“ x 9.1“. A 14“ x 18“ frame, hung landscape, leaves room for a mat.

A red or dark green frame picks up the plaid. For a smaller finished piece, stitch it on 18-count Aida.

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