Red Panda with an Acorn Lantern Cross Stitch Pattern

About this red panda cross stitch pattern

The red panda stands bundled in a cable-knit beanie and a matching scarf, its ringed tail curled behind it, holding up a lantern shaped like an acorn with a candle glowing inside. Fallen leaves, acorns and two little pumpkins scatter around its feet, and a pale halo of light spreads from the lantern.

It’s an autumn piece through and through, for a fall mantel or an entryway from late September into November. Red pandas share the rust-and-cream coloring of fall leaves, so the animal and the setting work as one palette. Hang it beside the Red Fox Curled in Autumn Leaves or the Baby Highland Cow in Autumn Leaves for an autumn wall; our fall animal round-up has more.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 20“ x 22“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 13 DMC colors, about 18 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 310 Black (3,430 stitches), 918 Red Copper – Dark (3,351), 921 Copper (2,692) and 951 Tawny – Light (2,471).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Advanced for its length rather than its palette. Thirteen colors is modest, but at 21,080 stitches it’s a long project, roughly 210 to 350 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour. The cable knit on the beanie and scarf is the fiddly part, with oranges switching every few stitches to suggest the twists.

Our guide to planning a large cross stitch project is worth reading before you buy thread.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Stitch the lantern glow in daylight. It’s 353 stitches of 745 Yellow – Light Pale spread around the lantern, pale enough to vanish against white fabric under dim light. Check it from a few feet back as you go.
• Count the cable knit carefully. On the beanie and scarf, 918, 921 and 3853 alternate in short runs; follow the chart row by row rather than by eye.
• Leave the green leaves for last. 471 Avocado Green – Very Light and 3346 Hunter Green (395 stitches between them) are the only cool colors in the design. Adding them last lets you see how they balance the orange.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 13.2“ x 15.1“ (33.5 x 38.4 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 11.6“ x 13.2“, and on 18-count at 10.3“ x 11.8“. For the 14-count version, a 16“ x 20“ frame leaves room for a mat.

A warm wood frame suits the autumn palette, and a cream mat lets the lantern’s glow show.

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