By Cross Stitch Library · October 10, 2026
A red panda in an orange knit beanie and scarf holds a glowing acorn-shaped lantern among fallen leaves and pumpkins — a warm, glowing autumn cross-stitch.
Your pattern is at the end of this page, right after the stitching guide below.
Bundled in a cable-knit beanie and matching scarf, a red panda holds up a lantern shaped like an acorn, a candle burning inside it. Fallen oak and maple leaves, acorns and two small pumpkins scatter around its feet.
The lantern is the focal point — a soft yellow glow spreads around it on the fabric, which makes the piece feel lit from within even though it’s only thread. It’s an autumn design through and through, a good match for a fall mantel or an entryway from late September into November. Red pandas carry the same rust-and-cream coloring as fall leaves, so the animal and the setting share one palette and the whole piece hangs together. Hang it beside our Red Fox Curled in Autumn Leaves or the Baby Highland Cow in Autumn Leaves for a three-piece autumn wall.
Thirteen colors is a modest palette, but 21,080 stitches is a long project. The fur is mostly DMC 918 Red Copper Dark (3,351 stitches), 921 Copper (2,692) and 951 Tawny Light (2,471), all outlined with 3,430 stitches of 310 Black. The cable knit on the beanie and scarf is where the chart gets fiddly, with oranges switching every few stitches to suggest the twists.
The lantern glow is 353 stitches of DMC 745 Yellow Light Pale spread in a halo to the right of the panda. It’s pale enough to vanish against a white fabric under dim light, so stitch it in daylight and check it from a few feet back as you go. Leave the leaves at the bottom for last: the greens there (471 and 3346, 395 stitches) are the only cool colors in the design, and saving them until the end lets you see how much they balance the orange before you commit. See our fall animal round-up for more autumn designs, and our guide to planning a large cross-stitch project before you start.
Choose your paper size and color or black & white, then download the Red Panda with an Acorn Lantern PDF chart and thread list — free, no sign-up.
