Not so subtle. These tileable wood patterns are very useful.
Source Elemis
This is a grid, only it’s noisy. You know. Reminds you of those printed grids you draw on.
Source Vectorpile
Remixed from a design seen in 'Burghley. The Life of William Cecil', William Charlton, 1857. The tile this is based on can be had by selecting the rectangle in Inkscape and using shift+alt+i.
Source Firkin
Greyscale version of a pattern that came out of playing with the 'light rays' plug-in for Paint.net
Source Firkin
A seamless pattern formed from background pattern 102
Source Firkin
A light gray fabric pattern with faded vertical stripes.
Source V. Hartikainen
A hint of orange color, and some crossed and embossed lines.
Source Adam Anlauf
Clover with background for St. Patrick's Day. Add to a card with a doily, ribbon, a leprechaun or other embellishments.
Source BAJ
To get the tile this is formed from select the rectangle in Inkscape and use shift+alt+i.
Source Firkin
Design drawn in Paint.net, vectorised using Vector Magic and finished in Inkscape.
Source Firkin
Has nothing to do with toast, but it’s nice and subtle.
Source Pippin Lee
The classic notebook paper with horizontal stripes.
Source Are Sundnes
Inspired by a 1930s wallpaper pattern I saw on TV.
Source Firkin
One of the few full-color patterns here, but this one was just too good to pass up.
Source Alexey Usoltsev
Coming in at 666x666px, this is an evil big pattern, but nice and soft at the same time.
Source Atle Mo
Nothing like a clean set of bed sheets, huh?
Source Badhon Ebrahim
From a drawing in 'Line and form', Walter Crane, 1914.
Source Firkin
Prismatic Curved Diamond Pattern 7 No Background
Source GDJ
From a drawing in 'Art Embroidery', M.S. Lockwood and E. Glaister, 1878.
Source Firkin