Faceted Celtic cross hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 3 colors · 1 kind of stitch

Faceted Celtic cross: preview of the stitched design

This ringed cross of the Celtic kind is green, solid and beveled like carved stone: each of its four arms widens a little toward its end and is split down its middle into a light half and a dark half of satin stitch, laid across the arm, and the eight halves meet in a point at the middle. A gold ring of satin stitch joins the four arms; it shows as four arcs, one between each pair of arms.

Size and details

Easy. In a hoop of 6 inches or less: short satin stitches, no shading; in a larger hoop the widest satin stitches are long.

3 colors of floss and 1 kind of stitch:

Satin stitch
Which stitch goes where

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.1 × 1.6 in	2.8 × 4.1 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	1.6 × 2.4 in	4.1 × 6.1 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	2.1 × 3.2 in	5.3 × 8.1 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	2.7 × 4.1 in	6.9 × 10.4 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	3.7 × 5.7 in	9.4 × 14.5 cm	1/2 in (13 mm)

In an 8 inch hoop the widest satin stitch shape is 1/2 in (13 mm) across. Satin stitches longer than about 12 mm (just under 1/2 in) tend to work loose: divide the shape into sections, or work it in long and short stitch.

The pattern is drawn inside a circle about half an inch (1.3 cm) smaller all around than the hoop.

What you need

DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawRing
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenLight half of an arm
DMC 986 Very Dark Forest GreenDark half of an arm

The floss is six-strand cotton; the stitch guide says how many strands to use. You also need a hoop, an embroidery needle (a size 7 to 9 suits two or three strands) and plain cotton or linen fabric. To frame the piece in its hoop, cut a square 3 inches (8 cm) wider than the hoop: a 9 inch (23 cm) square for a 6 inch hoop.

Stitch guide

Satin stitch 2 strandsRing, light half of an arm, dark half of an arm

Getting it onto your fabric

The PDF holds the pattern twice at actual size: once as drawn, and once mirrored for an iron-on transfer pen. Print it at 100% with scaling off and check the one-inch square (25.4 mm) with a ruler before you trace. How to transfer a pattern explains tracing, carbon paper and the other ways. The files are under Downloads.