Van Gogh Irises Cross Stitch Pattern (Free PDF)
Van Gogh's bouquet of blue irises, charted as a full-coverage design. He painted it in May 1890, just before leaving the asylum at Saint-Rémy. The wall is pale because its pink pigment has faded, and this chart follows the painting as it looks today.
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What you need
The full chart is 118 stitches wide and 94 high: 11,092 full cross stitches in 30 DMC colors, rated advanced. On 14-count Aida, cut a piece at least 14.5 × 13 in (37 × 33 cm), which leaves 3 in spare on every side, and a 12-in hoop holds the whole design. Some colors need more than one skein, so check the table.
| DMC thread | Stitches | Spread over | Thread | Of a skein | If it is out of stock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 453 Shell Gray Light | 2,507 | 114 areas | 33.4 m | 139 % | 168 Pewter Very Light |
| 02 Tin | 1,147 | 32 areas | 15.3 m | 64 % | 415 Pearl Gray |
| 3033 Mocha Brown Very Light | 1,062 | 37 areas | 14.2 m | 59 % | 3047 Yellow Beige Light |
| 931 Antique Blue Medium | 621 | 107 areas | 8.3 m | 34 % | 799 Delft Blue Medium |
| 644 Beige Gray Medium | 468 | 53 areas | 6.2 m | 26 % | 822 Beige Gray Light |
| 648 Beaver Gray Light | 443 | 104 areas | 5.9 m | 25 % | 452 Shell Gray Medium |
| 930 Antique Blue Dark | 409 | 123 areas | 5.5 m | 23 % | 803 Baby Blue Ultra Very Dark |
| 3816 Celadon Green | 391 | 13 areas | 5.2 m | 22 % | 913 Nile Green Medium |
| 954 Nile Green | 391 | 25 areas | 5.2 m | 22 % | 563 Jade Light |
| 3817 Celadon Green Light | 386 | 8 areas | 5.1 m | 21 % | 564 Jade Very Light |
| 924 Gray Green Vy Dark | 362 | 94 areas | 4.8 m | 20 % | 3808 Turquoise Ultra Very Dark |
| 3768 Gray Green Dark | 345 | 102 areas | 4.6 m | 19 % | 3809 Turquoise Vy Dark |
| 798 Delft Blue Dark | 322 | 70 areas | 4.3 m | 18 % | 312 Baby Blue Very Dark |
| 414 Steel Gray Dark | 283 | 105 areas | 3.8 m | 16 % | 646 Beaver Gray Dark |
| 3022 Brown Gray Medium | 274 | 56 areas | 3.7 m | 15 % | 3052 Green Gray Medium |
| 3750 Antique Blue Very Dark | 260 | 66 areas | 3.5 m | 14 % | 311 Wedgewood Ultra Very Dark |
| 318 Steel Gray Light | 178 | 75 areas | 2.4 m | 10 % | 04 Tin Dark |
| 3839 Lavender Blue Medium | 161 | 40 areas | 2.1 m | 9 % | 799 Delft Blue Medium |
| 502 Blue Green | 148 | 33 areas | 2.0 m | 8 % | 562 Jade Medium |
| 317 Pewter Gray | 142 | 53 areas | 1.9 m | 8 % | 645 Beaver Gray Very Dark |
| 991 Aquamarine Dark | 140 | 41 areas | 1.9 m | 8 % | 3847 Teal Green Dark |
| 3838 Lavender Blue Dark | 139 | 60 areas | 1.9 m | 8 % | 793 Cornflower Blue Medium |
| 169 Pewter Light | 134 | 55 areas | 1.8 m | 7 % | 646 Beaver Gray Dark |
| 3814 Aquamarine | 113 | 29 areas | 1.5 m | 6 % | 943 Green Bright Medium |
| 926 Gray Green Medium | 104 | 36 areas | 1.4 m | 6 % | 598 Turquoise Light |
| 3023 Brown Gray Light | 64 | 17 areas | 0.9 m | 4 % | 647 Beaver Gray Medium |
| 522 Fern Green | 38 | 8 areas | 0.5 m | 2 % | 3053 Green Gray |
| 797 Royal Blue | 23 | 9 areas | 0.3 m | 1 % | 796 Royal Blue Dark |
| 932 Antique Blue Light | 20 | 10 areas | 0.3 m | 1 % | 3755 Baby Blue |
| 640 Beige Gray Very Dark | 17 | 6 areas | 0.2 m | under 1 % | 830 Golden Olive Dark |
Thread for 2 strands on 14-count (how it is worked out).
Reading this chart
The center of the chart is column 59, row 47, a Delft Blue Dark stitch.
Tin has the largest connected block, 990 stitches. Antique Blue Dark is the most scattered: 409 stitches in 123 separate spots, 50 of them single stitches.
A row uses about 41.4 separate runs of thread on average; the busiest is row 40, with 71. Only 0 % of the grid stays bare, so the fabric color barely shows.
Budget roughly 55.5 hours to 111 hours (how we estimate that). New to charts? Read how to read one.
Finished size
| Fabric | Finished size | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| 11-count | 10.7 × 8.5 in | 27.2 × 21.7 cm |
| 14-count | 8.4 × 6.7 in | 21.4 × 17.1 cm |
| 16-count | 7.4 × 5.9 in | 18.7 × 14.9 cm |
| 18-count | 6.6 × 5.2 in | 16.7 × 13.3 cm |
Ideas for using it
- Framed piece for a living room
- A long winter project
- Gift for someone who loves Van Gogh
Stitching tips
- Work the deep blues of the flowers before the pale wall, so the shapes are in place early.
- Want the pink wall he first painted? Swap the wall threads for a soft pink.
- Grid your fabric every 10 stitches: on a chart this size it saves a lot of counting.
About the artwork
This chart is based on Irises by Vincent van Gogh (1890), which is in the public domain. Image source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Open Access, CC0). We made the chart with our own pattern maker, which reduces the picture to a grid of stitches and a set of DMC threads, so expect a simplified version of the original rather than an exact copy. It has not been stitched by us, so check the preview and try a small area first.
Free for personal use, and you may sell a few pieces you stitched yourself. Details in the terms.
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