A cross stitch picture, with autumn leaves and an autumnal quote

I do like summer; light evenings, warmer temperatures, the chance to be outside more etc. But that said, there is a very special place in my heart for autumn. If I had to choose a favourite season then I think Spring and Autumn would tie at the top for me. Autumn was my mum’s favourite season, she loved crisp mornings, autumn sunshine, the beautiful colourful leaves etc. She probably also loved us kids going back to school and getting a little bit of peace and quiet too although she never actually said that!

Today I’m joining the Fall Crafts and Decor Blog Hop, so stay tuned at the end of this tutorial to see lots more lovely seasonal ideas. I’m hoping my US friends will forgive my use of the word Autumn, rather than Fall throughout!

Autumn Quote Inspiration

I came across this gorgeous autumn quote last year “Autumn glows upon us like a splendid evening; it is the very sunset of the year” and thought it was beautiful. It is by Mary Russell Mitford from her book The Village. I’m afraid I’d never heard of her before this but apparently Mary was a childhood friend of Jane Austen and she wrote several books and plays. People who love her work say she wrote with style and spirit whereas those who are not so keen say her work is trite, sentimental, chatty and twee! I just like this Autumn quote and haven’t read any other of her work but to be honest “chatty and twee” sounds like my cup of tea so I might have to find a copy and have a read!

I took the quote and made it into a pretty cross stitch design to share with you today.

Worked on a 14 count fabric it will measure just over 8cm x 5cm or 3.75” x 2” when finished.

You could frame it, stitch it onto something, add it to a little drawstring bag, make it into a special greeting card, whatever you like.

I’ve added some suggested colours, the ones I used but to be honest you are only using a small amount of each colour so this would be perfect to use up any odds and ends.

I used these DMC threads :

In case it’s not clear, I used 920 for the back stitch for the word “Autumn”, and 436 for the top of “sunset” and 350 for the bottom half. I did try the words with paler colours but it just doesn’t work, pale colours do not make for readable letters no matter how pretty they are! The rest of the words and all the leaf stems and outlines are 801.

I used 2 strands of thread throughout, for the cross stitch and the back stitch.

Autumn Quote Cross Stitch Pattern

Autumn quote cross stitch chart with colour blocks and symbols

Click on the image of the chart to save and then print it, or you can download the design from here:

Autumn Quote Cross Stitch Design

Please note you may use this pattern for personal use and to make items to sell. You may not reproduce it in whole or in part, in pattern format for sale or redistribution. If you do share a photo of your version online anywhere please do tag me or at least mention Sum of their Stories so others can pop by and find the free pattern too.

I shared this as a work in progress over on Instagram last week and then noticed I’d made a mistake on my own design!! Doh! The photo on the left is what I started with, on the right is the correct version. Can you spot the mistake? I had to undo a little and re stitch!

You can use french knots to dot the i’s and for the colon but I found them a bit bulky so I just did a tiny half stitch.

As you can see in this close up of the autumn leaves, I stitched this on an evenweave fabric rather than a block Aida fabric. I just had a little left over piece that was the right size. This is a 28 count evenweave so the finished stitching is the exact same size that a 14 count Aida would be. If this means nothing to you and you think I’m talking in code but you are interested in giving cross stitch a try, check out this “What you need to get started: cross stitch” information.

An embroidered autumn quote in a wooden frame

This scratty bit of paper shows my initial design ideas for this cross stitch design, just in case you want to see how the magic happens!!

I’m joining the Fall Crafts and Decor Blog Hop with this free Autumn Quote Cross Stitch Design, use the links below to check out lots more lovely Fall or Autumnal ideas.