By Cross Stitch Library · October 10, 2026
A shaggy baby Highland cow with rosy cheeks, sitting among oak leaves, acorns and chanterelles — a warm, richly shaded fall cross-stitch for farmhouse decor.
Your pattern is at the end of this page, right after the stitching guide below.
Paws tucked under its chin and a ginger fringe falling over both eyes, this baby Highland cow sits in a loose ring of oak branches, acorns and chanterelle mushrooms. The leaves scatter outward instead of filling the background, so almost half the fabric stays bare and the calf reads clearly from across a room.
Highland cows are a farmhouse-decor staple, and this one is drawn for that setting: warm tans and coffee browns, no bright accent colors, nothing that fights with wood and linen. It hangs comfortably from September through Thanksgiving, but the calf itself isn’t tied to a date, so it doesn’t have to come down with the pumpkins. At 14.6“ x 14.4“ on 14-count Aida it’s a real wall piece, not a hoop ornament. For a second Highland cow in the same russet palette, our A Cozy Highland Hug shows a child hugging a grown one, and the Red Panda with an Acorn Lantern makes a matching fall companion.
There are 21,022 stitches here, and most of them are fur. Five browns build the coat — DMC 437 (4,731 stitches), 938 (2,837), 801 (2,743), 435 (2,699) and 434 (1,966) — and the shaggy fringe alternates them in runs of one or two stitches, which is exactly where a misread symbol shows. Nothing about the technique is hard. The length and the closely related browns are what earn the Advanced label.
Separate 437 and 435 on your floss card before you start — under a lamp at night they’re easy to swap, and the fringe is built from exactly that pair. Leave the face details for last: the 178 stitches of DMC 402 are the rosy cheeks, the 61 stitches of 754 sit around the muzzle, and the 26 white (BLANC) stitches are the catchlights in the eyes. Stitched last, the white stays clean instead of picking up brown fuzz from the fur around it. At this size, our guide to planning a large cross-stitch project is worth reading before you buy floss, and our fall animal round-up has more designs in the same palette.
Choose your paper size and color or black & white, then download the Baby Highland Cow in Autumn Leaves PDF chart and thread list — free, no sign-up.
