Shoujo Quilt Squares - Fushigi Yuugi
[Cross-stitch] [Anime] [Japanese Kanji]

Size: 70W x 70H
Backing: Aida Cloth, 14-gauge
Finished Size: 5" x 5"
Time Frame: hours

[Skip to Pattern]

Colors:2 per square, one for the name and one for the symbols
Colors Used: (DMC embroidery floss)
Hotohori & Nuriko:
salmon (3832) & pink (3733)
Nakago & Tamahome:
blue-purple (792) & lt. blue
Amiboshi & Suboshi:
sea green (3814) & lt. green (954)

Sources:
Japanese Kanji: Jeffrey's Kanji Server
Font: Californian FB

[Click for image of Hotohori & Nuriko]

[Click for image of Amiboshi & Suboshi]

During one of the planning phases for a convention I help out at, a couple of fellow stitchers and I came up with the idea of doing a fan-made patchwork quilt. The quilt-idea got pushed back, but I was so excited about the idea that I came up with several sets of patterns with the notion of a "quilt square" in mind. The restrictions that I set were that each square had to be about 6-7" on a side, the pattern should be quick to stitch and use few colors (as in most of my small work), and the subject material had to be from a shoujo series (stories for girls & women). I do love a good challenge, don't you?

Since Fushigi Yuugi has always been a good source of inspiration for me, I decided to return to the kanji-plus-name motif that represents the various warriors, or seishi. Instead of focusing on a simple nameplate sort of design however, I opted to go a little more complicated, and a little deeper into the fannish aspect of the piece. So I assembled lovers' pairs, using the names and seishi symbols of three of the more popular couples in Fushigi fandom. If you're familiar with the series, or at least with its characters, you might note that all of the couples are male-male, and one couple has even more in common than gender. Without going into much detail, I wanted something to balance out the series' own aggressively hetero romances, and have a bit of mischievous fun. Of course, anybody adapting these patterns is free to use whomever they wish as their subjects.

• MS Excel file (39K to 192K) [Win/Office2000 version, compressed]
• Text files (~20K each) [Letters-as-colors version]:
  Nakago & Tamahome | Hotohori & Nuriko | Amiboshi & Suboshi
• Printer-friendly GIF Image files (~12K each, 7.5" x 8" size):
  Nakago & Tamahome ( Key 1 2 3 4) | Hotohori & Nuriko ( Key 1 2 3 4) | Amiboshi & Suboshi ( Key 1 2 3 4)