Oriental / AsianA turtle with a dragon's head, the longgui: a domed shell full of spirals, a scaled neck, claws and a tail of flames, among clouds and waves. It is the same red and yellow medallion as the other four: 206 x 206 stitches, two threads and about 37 by 37 centimetres on 14-count.
This one closes the quartet, and closes it in a circle: dragon, phoenix, qilin and tortoise are the Four Divine Creatures of the Book of Rites, and the last one wears the head of the first. In feng shui the longgui is the creature of support — the mountain to lean on — protection and long life: a good gift for someone starting out. And it is the most solid of the five: the one with the most red and the least background, so stitching only the figure it is also the one that takes longest.
Longgui, the dragon turtle
This pattern is free: open it, change it however you like and publish your version in the gallery, under your name.
Files open with the Puntotek app.
The numbers
Size by fabric count
| Count | Stitches/cm | The design | In inches | Fabric to buy * |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 ct | 4.3 | 47.6 x 47.6 cm | 18.7 x 18.7 in | 64 x 64 cm |
| 14 ct | 5.5 | 37.4 x 37.4 cm | 14.7 x 14.7 in | 53 x 53 cm |
| 16 ct | 6.3 | 32.7 x 32.7 cm | 12.9 x 12.9 in | 49 x 49 cm |
| 18 ct | 7.1 | 29.1 x 29.1 cm | 11.4 x 11.4 in | 45 x 45 cm |
| 20 ct | 7.9 | 26.2 x 26.2 cm | 10.3 x 10.3 in | 42 x 42 cm |
| 22 ct | 8.7 | 23.8 x 23.8 cm | 9.4 x 9.4 in | 40 x 40 cm |
* The fabric to buy allows 8 cm on each side for the hoop and the frame. The highlighted row is 14-count, the most common: the pattern has the same number of stitches on every fabric, what changes is how big each one is.
Suggested fabric: white.
The threads
| Thread | Stitches | Of the total | Skeins * |
|---|---|---|---|
| DMC 16 | 17,288 | 51.8 % | 11 |
| DMC 666 | 16,097 | 48.2 % | 10 |
| 2 threads | 33,385 | 100 % | 21 skeins |
* The skeins are a guide: they assume about 1,700 stitches per skein with two strands on 14-count, rounded up. Finer thread goes further, doubled thread goes less far.
What this one asks of you
All 33,385 stitches are full cross stitch: no half stitches and no backstitch to follow.
It has 294 lone stitches, 0.9 % of the total, and 23 of those have no neighbour of their color at all. The more there are, the more the needle jumps.
