Festive Snowmen - PDF

Festive Snowmen Cross Stitch Pattern – KDS# 1572 by Kooler Design Studio

Festive Snowmen is a charming holiday cross stitch design created by Linda Gillum for Kooler Design Studio, a well-established independent design house based in Lafayette, California. Released in 2014 and catalogued as KDS# 1572, this downloadable PDF pattern is part of the Kooler Classic Charts collection. It is an ideal project for beginner to intermediate embroiderers looking to add a handcrafted seasonal decoration to their home or gift-giving repertoire.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a horizontal, banner-style cross stitch decoration featuring festive snowmen rendered in a cheerful, classic holiday palette. The finished piece is designed to be stitched as a decorative embroidery suitable for framing, displaying as seasonal home décor, or finishing into an ornament or small wall hanging. The wide, landscape-oriented composition makes it well suited for a mantelpiece display or holiday vignette.

Design Dimensions and Stitch Count

The chart provides a generous stitch count and multiple fabric count options so stitchers can customize the finished size to their needs:

• Stitch Count: 119 stitches wide × 54 stitches high
• 14 Count Aida: approximately 8½ inches wide × 3⅞ inches high
• 16 Count Aida: approximately 7½ inches wide × 3⅜ inches high
• 18 Count Aida: approximately 6⅝ inches wide × 3 inches high
• An additional 4–6 inches should be added to each measurement when cutting fabric to allow for framing or finishing margins.

Techniques Used

This pattern incorporates several classic counted embroidery techniques, making it a wonderful project for building foundational cross stitch skills while still producing a polished, detailed result:

• Full Cross Stitch – the primary technique used to fill in the snowmen figures, backgrounds, and decorative elements, worked with 3 strands of floss for solid coverage on Aida fabric.
• Quarter Stitch (¼ Stitch) – used to refine curved edges and add detail to the snowmen's rounded forms, also worked with 3 strands of floss.
• Backstitch – worked with a single strand of floss to create crisp outlines, define facial features, and add fine linear detail that gives the design its finished, illustrated quality.
• French Knots – worked with 1 strand of floss to add small, tactile accent details such as buttons, eyes, or decorative dots on the snowmen figures.

Stitches Used

• Full Cross Stitch – 3 strands
• Quarter Stitch – 3 strands
• Backstitch – 1 strand
• French Knot – 1 strand

Materials Required

The pattern is designed to be stitched on 14 Count White Aida fabric, which is the most widely available and beginner-friendly counted embroidery ground. Aida's evenly woven grid makes it easy to count stitches accurately without the need for additional tools. Stitchers may also choose 16 or 18 Count Aida for a smaller finished size with finer detail.

The design uses DMC six-strand embroidery floss in a rich palette of 25 colors, spanning warm holiday tones and cool wintry shades. Specific DMC thread colors referenced in the pattern include:

• DMC 151, 310, 320, 347, 353, 367, 369 – providing blush, black, green, red, and soft pink tones
• DMC 413, 745, 815, 818, 895, 930, 931, 932 – offering charcoal, pale yellow, deep red, light pink, dark green, and soft blue-grey shades