Songbird in Bloom Cross Stitch Pattern

About this songbird cross stitch pattern

A small songbird stands side-on with its tail raised, but instead of plain feathers its body is a patchwork of flowers: a large pale gray-blue bloom on the chest, white blossoms around it and darker leaves filling the gaps. The wing and the long tail are drawn in slate blue and gray stripes, and the bird stands on a soft beige shadow with a leafy sprig on each side.

With only 8 colors, all muted browns, grays and white, it looks like a vintage botanical print and fits calm, neutral rooms. For another bird with flowers, the Ornament Birds on a Pine Bough works in a similar soft palette; our bird round-up compares all the bird patterns.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 13“ x 12“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 8 DMC colors, about 8 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 09 Cocoa – Very Dark (1,135 stitches), 05 Driftwood – Light (697) and 415 Pearl Gray (456).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Intermediate because of the flower pattern inside the bird. The colors are few, but they change every few stitches, so you count more than you would in a design with big flat areas. At 3,983 stitches it takes roughly 40 to 66 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour, and almost half the fabric (44.8%) stays bare.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Stitch the dark 09 first. 09 Cocoa – Very Dark (1,135 stitches) draws the bird’s outline, the eye and the dark spaces between the flowers. Once it’s in, each flower is a small closed shape.
• Keep the white flowers clean. B5200 Snow White (355 stitches) makes the blossoms. Stitch it after the darker colors around it, with a fresh length of thread, so no brown fibers get caught in the white.
• Tell the two grays apart. 415 Pearl Gray (456 stitches) and 414 Steel Gray – Dark (364) both appear in the wing and the tail stripes. They’re labeled clearly in the PDF, but on the card they look close, so mark them before you start.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 6.8“ x 5.4“ (17.3 x 13.7 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 5.9“ x 4.8“, and on 18-count at 5.3“ x 4.2“. An 8“ x 10“ frame hung landscape leaves room for a mat.

It also looks good on oatmeal or pale gray Aida, which softens the white flowers into the background.

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