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Blue and white sugar skull needlepoint pattern

Intermediate · 4 colors · 4 × 4 in · 18 mesh

Shape: Its own borderChange

Blue and white sugar skull, square: 72 by 72 stitches in tent stitch.

Download free PDFPDF, US Letter · 29 KB

A white skull faces forward, with blue petals around its navy eye sockets, a blue flower on its forehead and a row of square teeth. It sits on a medium blue ground inside two white border lines.

Size and details

The chart is 72 × 72 stitches: a square ornament on 18 mesh canvas.

Worked in tent stitch throughout.

Intermediate: 4 colors. Changes of color are about 3.1 stitches apart, leaving out the border and the background around the picture. With up to 7 colors, closer than 3.5 apart is Intermediate and 3.5 or more is Beginner.

Shape and border

Sizes on each mesh
MeshStitched sizeCanvas to cut
107.2 × 7.2 in
18.3 × 18.3 cm		11.2 × 11.2 in
28.4 × 28.4 cm
126 × 6 in
15.2 × 15.2 cm		10 × 10 in
25.4 × 25.4 cm
135.5 × 5.5 in
14.1 × 14.1 cm		9.5 × 9.5 in
24.2 × 24.2 cm
145.1 × 5.1 in
13.1 × 13.1 cm		9.1 × 9.1 in
23.2 × 23.2 cm
184 × 4 in
10.2 × 10.2 cm		8 × 8 in
20.3 × 20.3 cm

Mesh is the number of canvas threads to the inch; the row in bold is the mesh this chart is sized for. Canvas to cut includes a margin of 2 in (5.1 cm) of bare canvas on every side. Leave at least that much.

Paper for the PDF

Threads and canvas

Its own border

  • DMC 799 Medium Delft Blue 3,236 stitches about 23 yards
  • DMC BLANC White 1,440 stitches about 10 yards
  • DMC 823 Dark Navy Blue 326 stitches about 3 yards
  • DMC 798 Dark Delft Blue 182 stitches about 2 yards

5,184 stitches in the chart, about 38 yards in all. The yards are estimates for 18 mesh.

Thread colors are approximate screen matches to DMC numbers. Check against real thread before you buy.

The numbers are DMC color numbers, which its six-strand cotton and its pearl cotton share. Wool and silk are numbered differently: match those by eye. For how many strands and which needle, see which thread suits which mesh.

The yards are of thread as it is threaded in the needle: stitched with several strands together, a thread takes that many yards of single strand for every yard listed. For six-strand cotton on 18 mesh, the thread and needle chart gives 4 to 6 strands.

You also need blank needlepoint canvas (mono canvas) in the mesh you choose (see mesh sizes), cut to the size in the table above, and a tapestry needle.

An estimate. The length of thread one stitch uses on the front and back of the canvas, times the number of stitches, plus 30 percent for starting, ending and the tail left in the needle. Each count is estimated as basketweave or continental and rounded up to a whole yard, so the yards in all are a little more than the thread calculator gives for every stitch at once. The 30 percent is this site's own choice. The thread calculator works the same estimate for any count and mesh.

Getting it onto your canvas

This is a counted chart: one square of the chart is one stitch. Find the center of your canvas and the center of the chart (the red arrows above and to the left of the chart), and count out from there, a color at a time.

Nothing is printed on the canvas, so no transfer is needed. How to needlepoint covers the first stitches.

Downloads

Each file has the thread key and the sizes on its first page, then the chart with a symbol in every square and a heavier line every ten. A chart too large for one page is divided over several, with two rows or columns repeated in gray where the pages join; a page may be turned on its side for a part that is wider than it is tall.

For your own stitching, gifts and handmade pieces you sell. Do not resell or share this PDF.

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