Oriental / AsianA qilin among clouds, inside the same red and yellow medallion as the dragon, the phoenix, the crane and the turtle. It is not a real animal, and it does not need to be: it has a dragon's head with horns and whiskers, the scaled body of a deer, cloven hooves and flames sweeping from its flanks. It is 206 x 206 stitches and two threads, about 37 by 37 centimetres on 14-count, with the yellow background stitched as in the other four.
In China the qilin is the one that announces good things: it appears when a sage is born or when a just age begins, and from that comes the motif of "the qilin brings a son", which makes it the gift for a birth. The qilin is one of the Four Divine Creatures listed in the Book of Rites — dragon, phoenix, qilin and tortoise — and all four are in this same family.
Qilin, herald of good fortune
This pattern is free: open it, change it however you like and publish your version in the gallery, under your name.
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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 | 18,214 | 54.6 % | 11 |
| DMC 666 | 15,166 | 45.4 % | 9 |
| 2 threads | 33,380 | 100 % | 20 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 33,380 stitches are full cross stitch: no half stitches and no backstitch to follow.
It has 261 lone stitches, 0.8 % of the total, and 18 of those have no neighbour of their color at all. The more there are, the more the needle jumps.
