Retro Cross Stitch Patterns

I don’t know why sometimes random things catch my eye and I decide to do a post about them, but it gives you a little peek into my world and what I’m thinking about, so we’ll go with it.

I think the original design that got me thinking about retro cross stitch patterns was shown to me on Pinterest when I was looking for something else, and I filed it away as something I wanted to post about at some point. As a child of the ’80s I love these designs, and the colors are a lot of fun even if you don’t remember that era. Or you can stitch them for your parents LOL.

The first one was this set of retro TV cross stitch patterns from The Pixel Cottage on Etsy. It shows the test pattern, a fuzzy screen and random pixels that you just had to be there to experience. The full design is 51 by 56 stitches (or about 3.6 by 4 inches) and uses nine colors. These would be cute stitched individually, too.

Home Sewn Stitches on Etsy has another cute collection of retro patterns, but in this case its a set of six designs for a Rubik’s cube, television, floppy disk, slatted sunglasses (don’t even ask), a boombox and a cassette tape (with pencil, of course!). Each of these designs fits in an 8-inch hoop, and they’d be perfect to stitch up for your TV room.

If classic cassettes are your style, Tiny Modernist has a cross stitch pattern that is just cassette tapes with different colors. You can stitch them all together in one project or make them separately. A single one would be perfect to stitch for a birthday card for a friend of a certain age. The full design is 64 by 96 stitches, or about 4.6 by 7.9 inches on 14 count fabric.

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35+ Sunflower Cross Stitch Patterns

If you like seasonal samplers and cross stitch patterns with a primitive twist, you’ll enjoy the collection from Curious Carrie Designs.

You’ll find alphabet designs, biscornu, patriotic projects and more. The summer category is the largest on the storefront, with Americana and floral designs. There are also categories for the other seasons and more general designs.

One of my favorites is this pretty sunflower cross stitch pattern, which is shown styled as a biscornu but it wouldn’t have to be. The pattern features sunflowers and bees and a little beehive. It uses 12 colors of floss and each side of the pattern is 51 by 51 stitches, which comes out to 3.64 inches or 9.2 cm square.

I love the fabric she used for the sample, which she actually dyed purple herself, but it would also be pretty on a purchased light blue or other color if you don’t want to dye your own.

There’s also a whole set of themed biscornu with a four letter word on one side (crow, home, love and snow, to name a few) along with a seasonal pattern on the other side.

The shop has a rather small selection at around 90 patterns as of this writing, but it’s a nice collection of traditional looking designs heavy on samplers and biscornu designs, so if those are things you like you’ll want to be sure to check it out. Visit Curious Carrie Designs on Etsy to see all her pretty designs.

Are you a designer or do you have a favorite cross stitch designer who hasn’t made it into the spotlight yet? (You can see all the featured designers in the craft businesses category on the page.) Let me know in the comments, or you can submit more detailed information by clicking on “suggest a craft” at the center top of the page.

[Photo: Curious Carrie Designs]

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