Red Fox Holding a Maple Leaf Cross Stitch Pattern

About this fox cross stitch pattern

Mid-stride on an autumn walk, the fox holds up the maple leaf it just picked, mouth open as if it’s about to tell you all about it. It’s a full standing figure from ears to paws, with a green scarf and a satchel over one shoulder, so it reads clearly from across a room.

The background is bare fabric, so pick your Aida color with that in mind: white keeps the orange bright, oatmeal makes the piece look warmer. It pairs with the Red Fox Peeking Around a Door, the other fox in a knit scarf, and the Golden Puppy in a Knit Scarf for a bundled-up autumn set. Our fox round-up suggests it as a first fox.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 16“ x 18“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 13 DMC colors, about 14 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 3853 Autumn Gold – Dark (2,647 stitches), 920 Copper – Medium (2,091), 310 Black (1,776) and 951 Tawny – Light (1,761).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Intermediate. The fur is the counting-heavy part: 3853 Autumn Gold – Dark and 920 Copper – Medium are laid next to each other in short broken runs to make the shading, so you’ll switch between them often rather than fill big blocks.

At 11,787 stitches, expect roughly 120 to 195 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Stitch the scarf first. Its two greens, 3362 Pine Green – Dark and 988 Forest Green – Medium, have 1,239 stitches together in one band across the middle. Once they’re in, they give you a landmark to count the fur above and below from.
• Keep the leaf’s oranges apart. The leaf is 728 Topaz shaded with the same 3853 as the fur, and the two are easy to grab by mistake under lamp light. Keep their bobbins on opposite sides of your organizer.
• Save the tiny colors for the end. 22 stitches of B5200 Snow White make the eye highlights, and 01 Tin – White adds 8 stitches of shine; place them once everything around them is finished.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 9.2“ x 11.9“ (23.4 x 30.2 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 8.1“ x 10.4“, and on 18-count at 7.2“ x 9.2“. For the 14-count version, a 12“ x 16“ frame leaves room for a mat.

A warm wood frame suits the autumn colors, and it hangs well in an entryway for the fall months.

What’s in the free PDF

• A cover page and a one-page overview with a preview of the design
• The chart, split across as many printable pages as you choose, in color or black and white, with a symbol for every DMC color, center lines, a mini-map showing which part of the design each page covers and a color key on every page
• The thread list: DMC number, color name, number of stitches and skeins to buy for each color
• The finished size on 11-, 14-, 16-, 18- and 28-count Aida