Retro Cross Stitch: 500 Patterns, French Charm for Your Stitchwork

She says she enjoys it quite a bit.

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.

Great illustrations Easy instructions..

Veronique Enginger's Retro Cross Stitch design book is brimming with new stitching ideas created with a keen French aesthetic. There are patterns for an assortment of uses, from smaller motifs for stitching accents to large-scale works that could be framed and hung on a wall. My favorite were the airplanes, the Orient Express, and the Asian-inspired patterns. Throughout the book, Enginger includes full color photography for examples of projects that could completed with the designs; instructions for those projects are included in the back. The grids are well-sized and the symbols are easy to differentiate. Enginger references DMC floss numbers, making the precise colors she recommends easy to source.While the instructions for cross stitching included with the book are suitable for beginner embroiderers, the patterns themselves are probably more appropriate for those with intermediate experience, as the beautiful designs include a lot of color changes, especially those with a larger scale. Overall, this is a nice pattern book for anyone who enjoys cross stitching and likes the French aesthetic of the designs.

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 received an advance reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review.

Mango Practique published several smaller books that contain all of these designs, followed by a compendium. This is an English reprint of that compendium. Unfortunately the individual books this volume is composed of were not reprinted in their entirety (I don't know if that is how the French compendium was, or if the English version truncated that one).I was primarily interested in the trio of botanicals - the cover "Le The", "Le Cacao", and "Le Cafe" (Tea, Cacao, Coffee). While the first two are in this book, the last one, Le Cafe, is NOT. This is highly disappointing since these make a nice series, and if I were to choose I'd have kept Tea and Coffee in the book, not Tea and Cacao. Thankfully I borrowed this book from my local library so my disappointment is less than it could have been. If you're looking for a specific pattern from the specialized volumes, you may be disappointed.Edit 11/12/19: I have been stitching the cover pattern directly from the chart in the book. The sample on the cover (also reprinted inside the book) isn't the same as the pattern. Between the terrible photography (the image seems overexposed, there's no blue in the actual design, which I knew as soon as I pulled the thread colors) the stitcher that made the model also scrunched the design together horizontally, and may possibly have merged 2 shades of the taupe-grey that are listed in the pattern as they are indistinguishable in the photos (looks like white, pale grey, and black when in fact it's an off-white and 3 shades of grey-taupe into grey-green-taupe. Very strange things to do and then use as the book cover.

Nothing like getting two different books (by the same author) to review to revive a love of a craft you haven’t bothered with in years.The author has a real knack for creating adorable vinatage’y patterns. In this particular book that means things like an Art Nouveau alphabet sampler (I’ve never been a friend of alphabet samplers, but the letters are super useful anyway). There are many floral themed more traditional pieces but there are also patterns like old cars, a jazz band, flappers, artists, planes, tributes to old school scientists, toys, teapots, coffeepots, foods, and more. One of my favorite sections of this book focusses on Women’s clothing and accessories.If I had to choose between the two books I was given to review, I’d pick the author’s  Fables & Fairy Tales to Cross Stitch: French Charm for Your Stitchwork  book. This one is just as gorgeous. I just have a love of fairy tales. But there are really no bad patterns in this book.

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.

デザイナーさんはカタカナだとヴェロニク・アンジャンジェと表記されている方ですね。写真は少なめ、図案がたっぷり。どれも華やかで調和のとれた素敵なデザインばかりでした。指定糸はDMCです。310番が黒でしたと言えば安心していただけるかもしれません。白の表記がwhiteとなっていましたが、日本の出版社からでている同じデザイナーさんの本では、BLANCと表記されているようです。奥付に当たる部分を見ると、2016年にフランスのMango Pratiqueから出版されたPoint de croix rétroというタイトルの本を、2018年にアメリカのSchiffer Pub Ltdが自国向けに出版したものといったところでしょうか。元の本(現時点で高値)については分かりませんが、こちらは刺し方の基礎が2ページあるところ以外、特に文章はありません。他のレビュアーさんが指摘されていますが、元になったMangoから出版されている他の書籍に、デザインの重複がみられるようです。Amazonの検索で気づいた限りだと、MANGO Un brin de nostalgieというものがそうでしょうか。参考写真はこの本にも載っている図案のものばかりでした。そちらの本は74ページのようですが、こちらは192ページあります。日本から出版されるソフトカバーの書籍と比べ、多少値が張る印象ですが、ページ数も結構ありますし、絵本のようなガッチリとしたハードカバーだったので納得です。重しなしでも開いて見ることができ、10マスの幅が1.75cmと大きめで見やすいので良い感じです。どなた様かのご参考になれば幸いです。

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

Beau livre...Mais qui regroupe des extraits des précédents livres Mango. Donc très décevant. Idem pour les autres livres Rétro, Passe temps et Autour du monde. Ce n'est pas sérieux de ne pas le préciser dans l'annonce.

Ottimo libro per una appasionatta ,veloce spedizione mi sodisfa in pieno