Pride Cross Stitch: Allo-Aro Dragon

Handdrawn illustration of a green meadow foreground with green pine trees growing against various green-hued mountain ridgelines. Scene is overlaid with the dark green/light green/white/grey/black stripes of the aromantic pride flag. The text Aro Worlds Crafts sits across the image in a black, antique handdrawn type, separated by two ornate Victorian-style black dividers.

As I’m deep in the middle of last-minute proofreading, today’s Aro Week post is something small, cheerful and slightly goofy: a little allo-aro dragon.

A cross-stitched patch sitting atop a blue microfibre blanket. The patch features a green dragon with darker green wings, undersized compared to the dragon's body, and a belly striped in yellow and gold. White splotches dapple the dragon's back and yellow spikes trim its spine and tail. The patch is stitched on white aida and edged with a double row of white blanket stitch, resembling a lace trim.

Because I wanted to keep to pride colours, the darker green stitches for eyes, nostril and lips don’t stand out against the lighter green. I should have stitched them in black as per the chart. I do like how boxing in the stitches with squareish outlining adds to the goofiness, though; this little guy belongs in a vintage video game!

This design is by Durene Jones and was published in issue 321 of the UK magazine The World of Cross Stitching. This issue includes a 41-pattern set of fantasy and mythology-themed motif patterns (great for patches) with a colour palette making heavy use of greens, yellows, white, grey and black. Perfect for aros who like fairy tales!

I stitched this piece in the Sullivans equivalent to DMC 401, 403, white/blanc, 727 and 725. Rather than edge in buttonhole stitch as usual, I finished this patch with a blanket stitch through each hole along the edge of the design, followed by a second row of blanket stitch worked through the stitches of the first row. This gives the aida edges a lace-like trim … and it’s a lot quicker than buttonhole stitch. So much quicker!

This issue (released last year) also has a watermelon tag pattern that’s begging for an aroflux or abro makeover. I may be planning to stitch the unicorn and pegasus designs onto a green cotton tote to make another aro-themed bag, because who doesn’t need more than one?

Pride Patch Tutorial: Aromantic Alphabet, Part Five

Six digitally-created versions of cross stitch pride patches, arranged in two rows of three, against a background of a textured partially-translucent aromantic pride flag. Text between the two rows reads Aro Pride Patches in black type. Patches include a rectangular patch in aroflux zigzag stripes, an idemromantic heart, an aro flag text patch reading "aro", a square in quoiromantic stripes, an arrow design in allo-aro colours and a second arrow in nebularomantic colours.

Are you an aromantic or otherwise queer person wanting more text patch designs for seven-stripe pride flags? Do you crave patches depicting longer words like “aromantic asexual”? I now have a complete alphabet to accompany my many seven-stripe block text patterns. Plus patterns for the words “aromantic”, “asexual”, “aplatonic” … and even more a-spectrum terms!

Five cross stitch text patches sitting on a blue microfibre blanket. From top to bottom: "pride" in nebularomantic colours on an aqua background; "arovague" in arovague colours on a black background; "aro" in aromantic-spectrum colours on a green background; "aaa" in allosexual-aromantic agender colours on a light gold background; and "alloaro" in allo-aro spectrum colours on a purple-pink 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.

You’ll need familiarity with cross stitch (full crosses and fractional stitches) and backstitch to make unedged patches, along with buttonhole stitch to make the edged patches shown above. The first instalment of this patch tutorial series demonstrates cross and blanket/buttonhole stitch, while the second covers backstitch. While these patterns use fractional stitches to round off most letters, they can be omitted for a more pixellated look.

Folks after patterns suitable for five and ten-stripe pride flags should check out my other Aro Alphabet posts!

Continue reading “Pride Patch Tutorial: Aromantic Alphabet, Part Five”

Pride Bead Tutorial: Aro Stars

Handdrawn illustration of a green meadow foreground with green pine trees growing against various green-hued mountain ridgelines. Scene is overlaid with the dark green/light green/white/grey/black stripes of the aromantic pride flag. The text Aro Worlds Crafts sits across the image in a black, antique handdrawn type, separated by two ornate Victorian-style black dividers.

This tutorial transforms kandi bead stars into pride-coloured ornaments, charms, keychains, zipper-pulls and necklace pendants. They’re simple and quick to make–plus most materials are readily available at dollar shops and craft stores. Flags with four or more stripes (horizontal or vertical) can be transformed into pride-themed stars using this technique, meaning your pride display is limited only by your bead collection!

Seven beaded stars sitting on a blue microfibre blanket. Three stars are made from pony beads, attached to a small piece of ribbon or cord as a dangling decoration, and four are made from seed beads and are attached to a necklace cord via a jump or split ring. One pony bead and one seed bead star is made in the colours of the five-stripe aromantic flag; one pony bead star is made in the colours of the seven-stripe nebularomantic flag; one pony bead star is made from the colours of a four-stripe cupioromantic flag; one seed bead star is made from the colours of the five-stripe allo-aro flag; one seed bead star is made from the colours of the four-stripe quoiromantic flag; and one seed bead star is made from the colours of the six-stripe aro-ace flag.
Continue reading “Pride Bead Tutorial: Aro Stars”

Pride Patch Tutorial: Aromantic Alphabet, Part Four

Six digitally-created versions of cross stitch pride patches, arranged in two rows of three, against a background of a textured partially-translucent aromantic pride flag. Text between the two rows reads Aro Pride Patches in black type. Patches include a rectangular patch in aroflux zigzag stripes, an idemromantic heart, an aro flag text patch reading "aro", a square in quoiromantic stripes, an arrow design in allo-aro colours and a second arrow in nebularomantic colours.

Are you an aromantic or otherwise queer person wanting more text patch designs for three, four, six and twelve-stripe pride flags? Do you crave patches depicting longer words like “aromantic asexual”? I now have a complete alphabet, with wide letters great for larger objects, to accompany my many four-stripe block text patterns. Plus patterns for the words “aromantic”, “asexual”, “alterous” and “nope” … and even “wtf” for my fellow quoi folks!

Seven cross stitch text patches sitting on a blue microfibre blanket. From top to bottom: "quoi" in quoiromantic colours on a blue background; "apl" in aplatonic colours on a purple background; "aroace" in oriented aro-ace colours on a pink background; "aro" in aromantic colours on a black background; "queer" in rainbow/LGBTQIA+ colours on a black background; "wtf" in quoiromantic colours on a teal background; and "aego" in aegoromantic colours on a matching flag-stripe 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, save the "aro patch, which is edged in chartreuse.

You’ll need familiarity with cross stitch (full crosses and fractional stitches) and backstitch to make unedged patches, along with buttonhole stitch to make the edged patches shown above. The first instalment of this patch tutorial series demonstrates cross and blanket/buttonhole stitch, while the second covers backstitch. While these patterns use fractional stitches to round off most letters, they can be omitted for a more pixellated look.

Folks after patterns suitable for five and ten-stripe pride flags should check out my other Aro Alphabet posts!

Continue reading “Pride Patch Tutorial: Aromantic Alphabet, Part Four”