Retro Cross Stitch

What a wonderful book! These are all lovely and thoughtful designs. No filler photos. No junk. A good, beautiful, hard cover book that delivers.

Retro Cross Stitch is a delightful collection of vintage cross stitch patterns. The book contains over 500 full color patterns, basic instructions for cross stitching, and several pictures of completed projects. There is a variety of large and small projects, but I most look forward to completing the smaller projects as gifts. In fact, my first project will be to sew a tea towel and add the teapot design from this book as a border. The patterns cover everything from travel to sewing to fashion to food and drink, all in a vintage style. This is a great book for anyone interested in cross stitch with a vintage flair.

I am a huge fan of Veronique Enginger's designs, and this book does not disappoint. There are a number of vintage patterns ranging from small ones that would fit together nicely into a sampler, and larger projects for those that prefer that style. Even if you don't end up using most of the patterns, it's just a beautiful book with a great aesthetic to look through

A beautiful book on cross stitch designs which can be used for small or large projects and gifts, or as a learning tool for someone staring out with cross stitch. The designs are charming and depict the retro era, and just by looking at some of the project made, will encourage trying some out on various items. They are small, therefore quick to make and do not test the patience of either a beginner or someone who just want to complete something in a short time. I really love the layout and the examples are very inspiring.

I have cross stitched for many years and own a lot of patterns and encyclopedia style compilation books. I am a little bit jaded when it comes to new design books. In many ways, the designs all begin to look the same.This book, is another thing altogether. I have recently purchased the Fables and Fairy Tales by Ms Enginger and based on how much I enjoyed that book, I pre-ordered her Christmas book and picked up this book as well.The designs range from small to full size pages. You can design your own sampler style project using any number of the designs in this book and they will all match well together. The designs are definitely retro but will a European flair that I have not seen in a US published book before.What I have been really impressed by is the minimal use of backstitch in most of the designs. Usually, a book of small design uses intensive backstitch to give definition to the design. In this book, it is only used as part of the design element. As I am not one who loves backstitching (though, as hard as it is to believe, there are those who do love it), these designs are perfect for me.I’ve looked at this designer’s previously published books which have been made available only in other languages and sincerely hope that she and the publisher will make those books available in English as well.