Hearts Cross Stitch: 9 Heart Patterns and How to Check a Chart
Last updated: October 7, 2026
Hearts cross stitch looks easy and goes wrong in one place.
A heart reads as a heart because of two numbers: how wide each lobe is and how deep the notch between them runs. Get the notch right and one colour carries the whole shape. Get it wrong and the stitched piece comes out as a pair of apples.
Free heart charts rarely say any of this. You get a photo of a finished hoop, and you open the PDF only once you are committed.
Quick answer: pick your use first: a bookmark, a card, an ornament or a frame. Then divide the chart’s width in stitches by 14 to get the finished size in inches on 14 ct aida. A heart 30 stitches wide finishes at just over 2 inches. Every one of the nine hearts below needs three colours or fewer. Check the symbol key and the page edges of the PDF before the first stitch, not after.
I stitch hearts only from charts that print the stitch count on the file, so I buy rather than hunt. You can skip the hunting too: heart charts with a stated stitch count and licence are one search away.
What makes a heart read as a heart
Four marks decide it. All four are placement rather than skill, so you can get them right on your first try.
- Lobe width. Each of the two top lobes is about a third of the full width. If you make them narrower, the heart turns into a pointed shield.
- Notch depth. The dip between the lobes is one to two rows deep on a small heart and three to four on a large one. Leave out the dip and you stitch an upside-down triangle.
- Side slope. The sides run down to the point at close to 45 degrees, one stitch in for every row down. A steeper slope is a teardrop, a shallower one is a pumpkin.
- The point. One single stitch at the bottom, on the centre line. Two stitches side by side make the heart look as if it was cut off.
Odd widths are easier than even ones. A heart 11 or 13 stitches wide has a single centre column, so you start counting there and notch and point sit on one line.
I check these four marks first. heart charts with the grid and count shown make that quick.
Lobe width, notch depth, side slope and the single-stitch point. Everything after that is colour, and colour is where free charts get expensive.
1. The small solid heart: the one-evening version
This is the small heart cross stitch most people mean. You use one colour and full crosses only, with no outline and no shading.
You keep it near 11 stitches wide and 10 tall. On 14 ct that is under an inch across, small enough for a pill box lid and big enough that you can still see the notch.
Work it from the notch outward: centre column, then the two lobes, then the slope to the point. Your notch fails first when the count slips, so starting there shows the mistake in five minutes instead of in the last row.
My mushroom chart guide shows the same habit on another motif.
I have seen free versions of this size list ten floss colours for a motif under two inches square. A small heart chart that names its colour count in the listing spares you that surprise.
2. The ombre heart: three pinks, one shape
An ombre heart fades from a dark shade at one edge to a light one at the other. You build the solid heart’s shape in bands, and it is the version that makes people ask what it is.
Size it around 30 stitches wide and 27 tall, a little over 2 inches by just under 2 on 14 ct.
Take two neighbouring floss numbers from one family and add a third halfway between them. Split the heart into three diagonal bands. I stitch the lightest last, because the light shade shows every mistake you make.
The chart makes or breaks this one. If two of your three pinks collapse into one symbol on a black and white printout, the bands blur. A gradient heart chart with a numbered floss list and distinct symbols keeps them apart.
3. A border of hearts
A cross stitch heart border is the most forgiving way to learn a repeat. You stitch one heart, one gap, then the same again.
You take a heart nine stitches wide with two empty stitches between hearts, so the repeat is 11.
Eight repeats make 88 stitches across, just over 6 inches on 14 ct: the right length for a tea towel edge or a card front.
Alternate red and pink along the row and the border looks designed. It is also a test of the chart. If the repeat does not add up to the stated width, someone edited it by hand, and I would not trust the rest of it. Border charts with the repeat marked on the grid make that check take ten seconds.
4. Heart in hand
Heart in hand cross stitch is an open palm holding a small heart, one of the oldest ways to stitch the idea of giving. The heart is the easy part. You will spend your counting on the hand.
Build the hand first as a flat shape, four fingers together and the thumb to one side, with the heart floating above. A heart 13 stitches wide over a palm about 24 wide lands near 40 stitches tall, just under 3 inches on 14 ct.
Use one skin tone, one red, and a single row of a darker skin shade under the fingers.
Backstitch is where this motif asks for care. If you skip the thumb line and finger divisions, you end up with a mitten. Check that a heart in hand chart lists its backstitch lines separately in the key.
5. Two hearts, one stitch line
When you overlap two hearts at the lobes, they read as a couple, and you get a finished design from a plain heart.
Make each heart 13 stitches wide and overlap them by three, which gives 23 stitches across and about 17 tall, under 1.7 inches on 14 ct.
Stitch the front heart completely, then the back one, and stop its stitches where the front begins. Deep red in front and pale pink behind gives you the depth for free.
The tell of a good chart is one row where the front heart’s darker outline crosses the back one. Without it, your pair merges into a lump. Pick a double heart chart with a full grid and the overlap row marked over one you must redraw from a photo.
6. A monogram inside a heart
A single letter in a heart is the usual choice for weddings, new babies and gift initials. A counting error shows here more than anywhere, and you will see a crooked letter at arm’s length.
Plan the letter first.
A block letter 11 stitches tall with a three-stitch margin wants a heart about 35 wide and 31 tall, 2.5 inches across on 14 ct. Centre the letter on pencil lines down and across the chart, since half a stitch off reads as crooked.
I use a plain sans or a serif in a darker shade than the heart. Script at this size smudges, because the thin joins fall between holes. You will often stitch monograms for other people, so a monogram heart chart with a stated licence matters most here.
7. A heart bookmark
A heart cross stitch bookmark uses a strip of aida about 2 inches wide and 6 to 7 long. That is 28 stitches across, with two stitches of margin each side.
The design area is about 24.
Put one heart 15 stitches wide at the top and a smaller one below, or run three hearts down the strip with a one-stitch line between. Finish the edges before you stitch. Aida strips fray, and a fray eats the margin you left for the hem. A zigzag line or a fold-and-fuse hem takes ten minutes.
When you buy, pick a bookmark chart that states its width in stitches, since one two stitches too wide for its strip is worse than none.
8. A stuffed heart ornament
You stitch it, back it with felt and fill it. It hangs on a tree or a drawer pull, and finishing counts as much as stitching.
Stitch a heart 28 stitches wide and 25 tall, 2 inches by just under 1.8 on 14 ct, with at least four rows of bare aida round it.
Outline it in one row of backstitch in a darker shade, which defines the shape and marks the seam line. Cut a quarter inch beyond the last cross, because felt and filling both take room at the seam.
Fill it with small pinches of polyester and push them into the lobes with a pencil end. Your heart will collapse at the lobes first. Charts that include the back piece are rare, so look for a heart ornament chart that comes with finishing notes for a first one.
9. Candy conversation hearts
Conversation hearts are the pastel candy hearts with a short word on each. In cross stitch you stitch a set of small hearts, each in a pale colour with a three-letter word.
Letters are the constraint. A five-stitch-tall letter with a one-stitch space needs 14 stitches for a three-letter word, so the heart must be at least 20 wide, about 1.4 inches on 14 ct.
Four in a row finish near 6 inches, a good mantel band. Keep the letters the darkest shade, because pale pink on pale yellow vanishes on a wall. I use one strand for lettering and two for the hearts.
The motif is seasonal, and you will see saves burst before Valentine’s Day. For a set you plan to give away or sell, a conversation hearts chart licensed for finished pieces covers the extras.
Why free heart charts fail you
You find heart charts everywhere, and almost none of them is checked. When I searched one large pattern catalogue, it listed 68 heart cross stitch charts. Not one of them carries a review.
The most saved has 58 saves and the middle of the list sits at 4. The checking falls to you, at your fabric’s expense. My rule: no stated count, no needle.
Five faults come up again and again in what stitchers report back:
| What goes wrong | How it shows up on your fabric |
|---|---|
| Stitch count missing or wrong | You start from the centre, then run off the edge of your aida two thirds of the way down |
| The PDF page is cropped | A column of the heart is simply blank, and you find out at the last row |
| Symbols that only differ by colour | Print it in black and white and two pinks become one symbol |
| A floss number no longer made | You are guessing a substitute shade halfway through the lobe |
| Colour count unstated | A heart sold as easy turns out to carry a dozen shades |
None of that is about your counting. It is about the chart, and you can see all of it in a minute.
Many free hearts say nothing about whether you may sell what you finish, which matters the moment a friend offers to buy the hoop off your wall. Heart charts that print the licence in the listing settle that question before you buy.
What you need: aida, two strands, three colours
- 14 ct aida. The count every number on this page assumes. You divide your stitch count by 14 for the finished size in inches.
- Two strands of floss for full crosses on 14 ct. One strand lets the fabric show through your lobes.
- Three colours at most: a main shade, a darker shade for the outline or shadow, and a light shade. One is enough for the solid heart.
- The chart on paper, not on a screen. You will mark off rows, and that is what stops your count drifting.
Start from the centre of fabric and chart, and count the first row twice. You will see a miscount on row three again on row forty.
Stitching houses too? My cross stitch house guide sizes 12 designs.
Check your chart before the first stitch
You can catch every fault in the table above in about a minute, before your needle goes in.
- Find the stitch count. Width and height, in stitches, stated by the designer. No count stated, no stitching: that chart is a picture.
- Divide by 14. You get your finished size in inches on 14 ct. Add two inches each way for your hoop.
- Look at the symbol key in grey. Print one page without colour. If two symbols now look the same, you cannot use the chart, however pretty the preview is.
- Check the page edges. Every page of the PDF should carry its own grid border. A missing border on one side is how a column of the heart goes blank.
- Count the colours. A heart that needs a dozen pinks is not a beginner chart, whatever the title says.
In my experience, free charts rarely pass more than two of those five. My sunshine chart guide applies them again.
Questions people ask about hearts in cross stitch
How to cross stitch a heart?
Find the centre column of the chart and of the fabric. Stitch the notch first, then the two lobes outward, then the slopes down to the single stitch at the point. Use full crosses, two strands on 14 ct, and lean every top stitch the same direction.
How to cross stitch a small heart?
Choose a chart 11 to 15 stitches wide with an odd count so there is a centre column. One colour is enough. Stitch the centre column, work each lobe from it, and finish at the point. You will finish it in an evening.
What size does a heart chart finish at?
Divide the stitch count by your fabric count. A heart 30 stitches wide on 14 ct finishes just over 2 inches. Leave two spare inches on every side.
Can I sell what I stitch from a free heart chart?
Not unless the chart says so. Most free heart charts are silent on it, and silence is not permission. A chart with a stated licence is the only safe one to stitch for someone else.
Key takeaways
- A heart is lobe width, notch depth, a 45 degree slope and a single-stitch point. An odd width gives you a centre column to count from.
- Your stitch count divided by 14 is the finished size in inches on 14 ct aida. No stated count means no chart.
- Of 68 heart charts in one catalogue, none has a single review. Nobody has checked them for you.
- Print one page in grey before you start. Symbols that differ only by colour fail on paper.
- When you would rather stitch than audit, start from charts that state count, colours and licence and keep your checking for the fabric.
