Red Fox Peeking Around a Door Cross Stitch Pattern

About this fox cross stitch pattern

Half hidden behind a weathered plank door, the fox leans out just far enough to see who’s there, ears up and one paw gripping the wood. The door takes up the left side of the design with its grain and knots, and the fox’s orange fur and mustard scarf glow against the brown.

The tall, narrow shape is the point: it fits the awkward spaces most pieces don’t, beside a doorframe, at the end of a hallway or between two windows. Hung next to a real door, the joke lands on its own. For more foxes, see the Red Fox Holding a Maple Leaf and the Baby Fox in a Winter Beanie, or compare them all in our fox round-up.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 15“ x 20“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 15 DMC colors, about 18 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 839 Beige Brown – Dark (6,384 stitches), 310 Black (2,244), 612 Drab Brown – Light (1,392) and 740 Tangerine (1,175).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Intermediate. The door is almost half the stitching: 839 Beige Brown – Dark alone is 6,384 of the 13,730 stitches, broken up by streaks of 612 Drab Brown – Light for the grain. That big brown area is relaxing, repetitive stitching; the fox’s face and scarf are where the counting tightens up.

Expect roughly 140 to 230 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour. It’s one of the examples in our guide to planning a large cross stitch project.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Buy 839 from one dye lot. It takes 4 skeins on its own, and a lot change halfway down the door would show as a band across the wood.
• Alternate the scarf colors. The knit texture comes from 3829 Old Gold – Very Dark and 725 Topaz – Medium Light (584 stitches combined) in short runs. Keep both threaded and switch back and forth instead of finishing one color first.
• Put the eye highlights in last. They’re just 9 stitches of B5200 Snow White, and they bring the face to life once everything around them is done.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 8.3“ x 13.5“ (21.1 x 34.3 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 7.2“ x 11.8“, and on 18-count at 6.4“ x 10.5“. For the 14-count version, a 12“ x 16“ frame leaves room for a mat.

A narrow, rustic wood frame matches the weathered door and suits a hallway.

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