Moroccan tile in satin stitch hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 5 colors · 1 kind of stitch

Moroccan tile in satin stitch: preview of the stitched design

A square of star and cross tile work is made of nine tiles, with a narrow line of bare cloth between them for the grout. An eight-pointed orange star sits in the middle with a navy boss, the round stud at its center; a pale blue pointed cross with an orange boss lies on each of its four sides, and each corner has a star with a gold boss whose points are navy and blue by turns. Every star point and cross arm is satin stitch in two halves that slant away from its middle line, and the bosses are satin stitch.

Size and details

Intermediate. Satin stitch over about a third of the cloth in a 6 inch hoop and a great deal of stitching; from a 6 inch hoop up some of the satin stitches are long.

5 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)	1.5 × 1.5 in	3.8 × 3.8 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.3 × 2.3 in	5.8 × 5.8 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3 × 3 in	7.6 × 7.6 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.8 × 3.8 in	9.7 × 9.7 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.3 × 5.3 in	13.5 × 13.5 cm	9/16 in (14 mm)

In an 8 inch hoop the widest satin stitch shape is 9/16 in (14 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 3755 Baby BlueCross arms
DMC 922 Light CopperOrange bosses and orange star points
DMC 336 Navy BlueMiddle boss and navy star points
DMC 312 Very Dark Baby BlueBlue star points
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawGold bosses

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 strandsCross arms, bosses, star points

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.