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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Book Review: Retro Christmas Cross Stitch

Cross stitch is not a craft I generally travel with (since I’m not that good at it, I prefer not to be moving while I’m doing it) but I’m sure there are lots of stitchers who would like to take their projects with them when they travel.

Koekoek has a post all about cross stitching on a plane, which is a great plan since it’s lots of uninterrupted time to work. As mentioned in the post, you should be able to bring embroidery needles (which tend not to be that sharp anyway) on an airplane with you.

Regulations in the United States say that scissors with blades up to 4 inches/10 cm are allowed in the cabin, but whether they are allowed by security as you pass through it is up to their discretion. And thread cutters that use a razor blade are not supposed to be allowed at any time.

Alternatives include bringing nail clippers to snip your threads, or pre-cutting thread and placing it on bobbins so you can stitch on the plane. Then pack scissors in your checked bag so you can cut any loose ends or extra long strands later.

Check out the post at Koekoek for more tips on traveling with cross stitch and suggestions for projects to pack when traveling. I’ve also written in the past about this post from Caterpillar Cross Stitch about traveling with cross stitch supplies and, importantly, what to do to make your screening as smooth as possible. And, importantly, what to do if the security agents question your supplies or want to confiscate anything you brought.

And that’s a great tip, too: if you are packing scissors in your carry on but you’re also checking a bag, pack extras there just in case.

Do you have any tips for traveling with cross stitch projects? I’d love to hear them. Also check out my post about planning a travel stitching kit.

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