For the third day of @aggressivelyarospec's Aggressively Arospectacular 2022 event, I offer up the most wildly, obnoxiously aromantic thing I’ve ever made: a cross-stitched drawstring bag with a removable strap. It can hold a wallet and phone for pride events ... or a whole lot of appropriately-coloured dice.
I fondly deem it The Aro Bag ... because, well, what else can one call it?
A project run-down describing my materials and process, plus thoughts on an improved 2.0 version, is available on aroworlds.com. You’ll also find photos proving that I stitched the word “aro” sixteen times over both sides of the bag, because I am absurd enough to do so. Or just that aromantic...
Image description beneath keep reading:
[image description: two photos of a drawstring bag, made of white aida, sitting atop a blue microfibre blanket. The word "aro" has been cross stitched eight times, in a two-by-four pattern, on the front of the bag in pride-stripe colours. Black eyelet lace, threaded with light grey ribbon, decorates the top; black edging lace finishes the bottom. The ends of the grey ribbon are finished with five perler/hama beads in pride-stripe colours: green, light green, white, grey and black.
photo one: The bag has been pulled shut via the eyelet lace; the grey ribbon is tied in a loose bow at the front of the bag.
photo two: The bag is open and a green grosgrain ribbon is attached to the inner seams via white bra clips, forming a handle or strap. An assortment of dice--polyhedral, six-sided and MtG spindown--in greens, yellows, gold, black, grey and white spills out of the bag and onto the blanket beneath.]
On the forth day of @aggressivelyarospec's Aggressively Arospectacular 2022, I present a new addition to my pride-themed embroidery kit makeover series: an allo-aro unicorn.
This piece is stitched entirely in backstitch: even the filled-in sections of flowers and horn are formed by spiraling lines and rows. I wanted to practice stitching straight and curved lines ... and as you can tell by some wonky sections of mane, practice is needed! The end result, however, looks cute--and sometimes, as an allo-aro, it’s easy to forget that we too are deserving of sweetness.
More information about the kit I used is available at aroworlds.com.
You can find the image description beneath keep reading:
[image description: A freehand embroidery piece on cream drill or canvas, set into a bamboo embroidery hoop. The piece consists of a unicorn outline stitched in white with strands of light and dark green hair and a yellow and gold horn. Beneath the unicorn sits a row of daisy-type flowers, leaves and coloured dots in the aforementioned colours. All stitching is done in backstitch; only the centres of the flowers and the unicorn's horn have been filled in with tight backstitched swirls. The hoop sits atop a blue microfibre blanket.]
This tutorial includes a complete upper-case block-letter alphabet for horizontal five and ten-stripe pride flags, patterns for longer words like “allosexual” and “non sam aro”, more letter icon-style patterns, and tips for stitching long patches (like the “aromantic” and “allosexual” patches shown above).
I also have pride patch tutorials and pride patch patterns for text, flags and symbols covering a wider range of aromantic-spectrum flags!
Image descriptions available beneath keep reading:
[image descriptions:
Photo: Seven cross stitch text patches sitting on a blue microfibre blanket. From top to bottom: "aroace" in angled aro-ace colours on an olive background; "aro" in aromantic colours on a pink background; "aromantic" in aromantic colours on a yellow background; "pride" in allo-aro colours on a purple-grey background; "allosexual" in allo-aro colours on a pink background; "pride" in apothiromantic colours on a gold-tan background; and "flux" in aroflux colours on a light purple background. All letters are capitals in a blockish style of text with rounded corners. Each letter is outlined in backstitch. Every patch is finished with a buttonhole stitch edging in colours similar to (lighter or darker than) their background colour.
Pattern: Rectangular cross stitch pattern with the text “aromantic” in block lettering, striped in the colours of the dark green/light gren/white/grey/black aromantic flag, on a yellow background.]
Chronic pain has derailed my Aro Week preparations, so I’m starting off with a few new additions to my cross stitch rainbow patch collection ... and an apology to my aro-ace followers. Why oh why did I pair the beautiful aro-ace flag with such a bright orange edging? The pastel-edged abro and allo-aro flag rainbows look so cute! The aro-ace rainbow looks so bright!
The post source contains a link to my ramblings on questionable thread choices and information on the kit containing this pattern.
Image descriptions beneath keep reading:
[First image description: three five-stripe rainbow cross stitch patches sitting on a blue microfibre blanket. All patches show a striped arch/rainbow shape with a buttonhole stitch edging and a centre filling cross stitched in the same colour as the edging. From top to bottom, clockwise: aromantic (green/light green/white/grey/black), edged in light mint-blue; alloaro (green/light green/white/yellow/gold), edged in light pink-purple; and abroromantic (mint-green/light mint-green/white/pastel pink/pink) edged in light purple-blue.
Second image description: A five-stripe rainbow cross stitch patch sitting on a blue microfibre blanket. The patch shows a striped arch/rainbow shape with a buttonhole stitch edging and a centre filling cross stitched in the same bright orange-red colour as the edging. Stripes are stitched in aroace colours: orange/yellow/white/cyan/blue.]
I’m kicking off my posts for @aggressivelyarospec‘s week-long #aggressivelyarospectacular event with (gasp! shock!) more cross-stitch patches. I’ve finally made text patterns for folks represented by seven-stripe pride flags--including the words aro, ace, aroace/acearo, alloaro/aroallo, nebula, agender, queer and the triple a pattern shown above.
These patterns suit several seven-stripe aro and ace spectrum flags, the new allo-aro spectrum flag, most nebularomantic and/or nebulasexual flags and heaps of aro-ace and aro-ace agender flags.
Image descriptions are located beneath keep reading:
[image description, photo: Two cross stitch patches sitting on a blue microfibre blanket. Both feature block-style letters divided into seven horizontal stripes, sewn in the colours of various pride flags. The top patch reads "alloaro" in the colours of @neopronouns‘ green/aqua/magenta/light blue/white/yellow/gold allo-aro spectrum flag, sewn on a lilac background with a lilac buttonhole-stitch border. The bottom patch reads "aro" in the colours of the green/black/grey/white/grey/black/green aro spectrum flag, sewn on a green background with a variegated green buttonhole-stitch border.
image description, pattern: An aro-ace agender cross stitch patch pattern with the text Triple A in upper-case block lettering, striped in the colours of the black/green/white/lime/white/violet/black aro-ace agender pride flag, with a dark green background. Pattern is set on a light grey grid. Letters are outlined, indicating backstitch, in grey.]
[image description: A cross stitch patch sitting on a blue microfibre blanket. The patch is shaped like a rainbow and is stitched in the five stripes of the aromantic pride flag: green, lighter green, white, grey and black. A soft blue-green mint colour is sewn around the rainbow as a buttonhole stitch edging.]
Here’s another aro themed cross-stitch patch for @aggressivelyarospec‘s #aggressivelyarospectacular event! This one is a rework of a rainbow pattern from a K-Mart (child-focused) cross-stitch kit. It still needs a few adjustments, but I think this turned out cute ... and I can’t wait to make more aro-themed rainbow patches.
[image description: a wreath of blue roses--using medium, grey and light blues to show shadows and petals--and mint/green foliage cross stitched onto a rectangle of white aida fabric. Blue daisy-type flowers with green stems and leaves sit in each corner, above and below the wreath, and a row of miniature daisy-type flowers sit between the top two and bottom two corner flowers. The word “welcome” is stitched in the centre of the wreath. The piece of fabric is sitting on a blue microfibre blanket.]
I thought I’d do something a bit unusual for me and post a not aromantic thing during @aggressivelyarospec‘s #aggressivelyarospectacular event. I have a relative moving into a new house, so I thought this Daiso cross stitch kit would make a nice present.
The finished piece would look nicer if I’d used three strands of floss instead of two, because it’s very pixellated. (It’s nicer when viewed from a distance!) But the kit didn’t include enough mint floss for that, so here we are. I like that colours are close to the toothpaste gay flag, because who doesn’t like unleashing subtle pride statements onto the world?
Now I just have to press it flat ... and figure out how to ship it so that it arrives unmangled.
Pride Patches and Tutorial: Four Stripe Alphabet and Icons
For the third day of @aggressivelyarospec‘s #aggressivelyarospectacular event, I’ve created an entire lower-case alphabet suiting horizontal four-stripe flags ... which can also be adapted for three, six and twelve-stripe flags! I’ve even made a bunch of patterns for icon-style patches, into which you can place any of the letters from my alphabet.
If you wanted flag-themed text patterns for words like “quoi”, “cupio”, “oriented aroace”, “aplatonic” or “idemromantic”, this alphabet will let you make them. When stitched on plastic mesh, a single letter makes an awesome keychain!
Image descriptions are located beneath keep reading:
[image description, photo: Four cross stitch patches sitting on a blue microfibre blanket. All feature pixel-style letters divided into four or six horizontal stripes, sewn in the colours of various pride flags. The top patch reads "quoi" in the colours of the quoiromantic flag, sewn on a teal background with a blue buttonhole-stitch border. The left-hand patch is sewn on plastic canvas and features a "Q" in rainbow stripes on a black background; it hangs from a silver keychain. The centre patch is an "I" in the colours of the idemromantic flag on a light mint background with an aqua buttonhole stitch border. The right-hand patch is an "a" in the colours of an aromantic-spectrum pride flag on a black background with a black buttonhole stitch border. Both "I" and "a" patches have a frame surrounding the letter in the colours of their respective pride flags; the "Q" keychain doesn't.
image description, pattern: An alphabet cross stitch patch pattern striped in the colours of the mint/white/purple/navy aro-ace/aro-ace spec pride flag. Pattern is set on a light grey grid. Letters are outlined, indicating backstitch, in light purple. Letters shown include lower-case a, b, c, d, e, f, g and h, with an uppercase I.]
