Game of Thrones Cross Stitch

This is what I've been doing since August. If you're interested in winning one, scroll down to bottom and leave a comment with your name and which piece is your favorite. When my display ends toward the end of May, I'll draw a name out of a hat and the winner will take home the piece he/she listed.

All eight of these pieces are slated to be on display at Starbucks, 5351 Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis starting May 12. While I'm no photographer, I've done my best to capture and explain everything that went into making these works; I honestly had a wonderful time doing each and every one (and am kind of sad that I'm done). Enjoy!



HOUSE BARATHEON

This was two stitched images, the stag and the border design, backed onto felt and then attached to a yellow fabric that seemed royal and golden, but masculine enough for the war-seasoned Baratheon brothers.

One of the most fun to create, although I had to do all the golden negative space first, before the stag, as no place in seven hells carries gold cross stitch fabric. A few times I found myself actually sewing parts of the stag (in golden) instead, and had to rip it all out and start all over again. The crown around the neck proved too difficult to measure and reproduce for me, so I left it out. The antlers were my favorite, and turned out nice and tight.

I am a big fan of the Baratheons, especially our dear departed King Robert. During Game of Thrones' first season, some of my favorite parts were his drinking, womanizing, and shouting constant rude and angry remarks at people. Check it out:
(explicit)



HOUSE STARK

This was before I got it into a frame, but you get the general idea. My first piece in the series, my longest, and probably most difficult, too. You see, I don't really plan much when I start these things, I trace or draw the main image, in this case the direwolf, and then after I finish, decide if it still needs something. This one was an impressive image, to be sure, but it still needed something to make it killer. I found the border on a cross stitch site and thought I'd add it either across the top or down the left or right side; little did I know I'd be fumbling around with that damned thing the entire way across, counting, re-counting, and redoing nearly every square pattern I started. I'm not a numbers girl, more of a spatial relationships girl, so having to rely on exactness was difficult. I was lucky not to have run out of fabric, to tell the truth. But I love this one; it's a labor of love that turned out amazing. When people ask me if I sell the stuff I make, this piece is a perfect example of why I don't and probably never will. No one will ever love it like I do, and there isn't a possible price that I could put on it that would reflect all the time and energy it took me (which is about four month's worth).


Starks are my favorite, btw. If you've read anything else on this blog you know that scowling men are my thing. Lord Eddard felt very right to me for this reason.

Jon Snow wins, too, but more on him during The Night's Watch pieces below.

HOUSE TARGARYEN

This is the only piece that doesn't have a border, a mat, or any contrasting images or fabric along with it. The three-headed dragon is strong enough on its own, I think. My only regret is that I didn't try it in an oval or circular frame. I suppose I could always do another one; the pattern I drew out for this one was probably the most exact of any of them.

I was ready to write the Targaryens off completely just until that little turnaround last week (Now His Watch Has Ended). . . I love it when there gets to be dracarys.





HOUSE LANNISTER 

This one was the perfect mix of image, border, and text. It went fast and was exciting to create. It's one of the few that I counted and mapped out before starting just to make certain that everything would be centered. I was worried that the lion might come out a little blunt or dull since I didn't vary the gold too much, but after the black back-stitching went in, it all came together.

The most dysfunctional family in all the realm, I find House Lannister the most interesting. If you've read the books you know that a lot changes for them, too. Some of my favorite sections of writing and character development come from Jamie Lannister's journey with Brienne of Tarth. As true and wonderful as the show is, reading the events in prose is almost better. If you haven't done this yet, I highly recommend you do it.



And this, just because everyone really does love Tyrion:
(explicit)




THE NIGHT'S WATCH 

These were originally going to be one piece; half black and half white, but they seemed to hold up on their own so I kept them separate. Eventually I'd like to do the entire vow of The Night's Watch, but I'll save that for next winter, perhaps. The sword is embroidered in silver, black, and gray; the crow is black felt. 

Speaking of crows, the only one I like better than Jon Snow is his Lord Commander, Jeor Mormont (The Old Bear, and father to my boy Ser Jorah Mormont). Also Benjen Stark. What kind of name is Benjen? Okay, what kind of name is Jeor, too, but damn. What do they call the girls that hang around the club in SOA, Crow-Eaters? The men of The Night's Watch scowl a lot, to be sure. I'm with them.

This was one of my favorite images from the show; the gate rises and The Old Bear leads the crows on a white horse with their torches in search of, well, the worst thing imaginable. Powerful example of storytelling with images.








R'HLLOR 

I thought the Red Woman should be represented, mostly because I like the sigil Stannis Baratheon adopted on her behalf. And the more I watch, the more I like Stannis, plus I needed something else that was red. The heart is cut of felt and the flames embroidered; I was nervous about this one looking choppy or amateuristic, kind of like a bad tribal tattoo or something, but in the end I came to like how it came together.


NINE HOUSES OF WESTEROS



I couldn't fit this one in, not all the way. The only piece that I actually used a pattern for (credit to BlackLupin on DeviantArt), this one killed my eyes with its 22count fabric, which was the only stuff tight enough for me to fit all nine houses onto. It was fun, it was lengthy, but it was varied enough to keep me interested since there was always another house to start when I finished. I started in the middle with The Stark's Direwolf and then worked outward. There's a little, well no, LARGE, error on The Greyjoy's Kraken--I had the pattern turned upside down for some reason when I had it with me at my mother's for Christmas. Somehow I picked it up again and turned it rightside up and had no idea I was doing anything wrong and went about my merry way until I finally noticed that the pattern had only one set of curly tentacles, not two. I suppose this is why I don't like being held to patterns, with free-styling on the fly this sort of thing never happens. Also, I probably shouldn't have picked it up after that much wine. Lessons learned, and the Greyjoys are awful, anyway.


TO WIN A PIECE OF WESTEROS CROSS STITCH:

If you like what you see, tell me! Leave your name in the comments below along with which piece is your favorite. If you want to talk about the show or the books, that's great, too! Should you be on Facebook, Google+, or Twitter and want to share this, please feel free. I'll have a drawing the night I take everything down and I'll announce the winner as a comment on this post and on Facebook, so check back! Thanks for your interest in my art! 

House Stark Direwolf Cross Stitch

My little direwolf is not exactly photogenic yet with all the strings and shit hanging off, but he'll look pretty killer once I find a Winterfell- reminiscent frame for him, right? I found the direwolf on HBO's site (as well as the other sigils, get ready for some kick-ass dragons, lions, and stags after this one) and the surrounding pattern was just on a cross-stitch site;



I feel as though the Starks would approve.

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, episode 6, House of the Rising Sun

House of the Rising Sun

Events: At the beach, there is an incident between Jin and Michael; Jin attacks, unprovoked, first punching his face repeatedly and then nearly drowning him as Walt looks on, horrified. Sayid and Sawyer break up the fight and handcuff Jin to a piece of plane wreckage, but as Jin and Sun don't speak English, no one can determine what happened between the two men or why. Jin seems defiant and even unstable after being restrained, but through Sun's flashbacks we see that he was once a gentle, tender man, and a very devoted partner.

Meanwhile, Jack, Kate, Locke, and Charlie head for the caves to get water; Charlie upsets a beehive while trying to get himself a fix of heroin. After runnning from the bees, Jack and Kate stumble upon two skeletons inside the caves, one with two rocks in his pocket, one is light, one is dark. Jack takes the rocks and hides them from Locke, who christens the remains, "our very own Adam and Eve."

Later, when Charlie tries again to sneak away for a fix, Locke stops him and takes the stash but helps him find his lost guitar. When Jack starts to relocate people from the beach to the caves, Sayid, Sawyer, and Kate stay behind.

After exhaustive efforts to find out why Jin attacked Michael, Sun approaches Michael near the jungle and speaks to him in perfect English. Through further flashbacks it is revealed that Jin worked for Sun's father, the work he did was all-consuming and violent, and that she had planned to leave him the day they boarded the flight in Sydney, but ultimately didn't. Sun explains to Michael that Jin attacked him because he was wearing a watch that had belonged to her father, which Michael had innocently picked up on the beach. When Michael scoffs, she says, pleadingly, "You don't know my father."

Greater Meaning: Toward the end of the episode, when Kate inexplicably refuses to move from the beach to the caves, Jack is confused and frustrated. He asks, "How did you get this way?" And while certainly not without his own complexities, Jack (and his question) makes an important point at this stage of the show, and not just regarding Kate. Many of the survivors have issues, problems, and this episode does a great job of uncovering them without seeming overwhelming. It would be easy to just completely write Jin off as a violent, reactionary man if we didn't see that he had once been quite the opposite. Michael might seem like an uninvolved, impatient father and Walt a defiant, annoying child had we not been shown little bits of their histories. And Sun could indeed have been marginalized as a stereotype, a wet rag of a wife, but the writers make sure to show us that she really wasn't. As the episode opens, Sun looks from group to group, understanding every word being spoken but unable to react or participate because of her secret. Whatever happened in her marriage during her husband's employ with her father was significant enough for her to learn English, privately, and to want to leave Jin; what happened between them? How did any of them "get this way?"

Did Old Man Shephard send the beehive, too?

On a different note, those skeletons in the caves? Clear evidence that not only were there other people there before the crash survivors (in the place where Jack's father's clinking ice led Jack to find water) but that there is some connection, even if it's merely aesthetic, to Locke's backgammon explanation from the pilot episode or by association, any game where two opponents face each other. Already there seems to be a division forming on the island and a fair amount of hostility between camps and decisions: Sayid, Kate, and Sawyer on the beach, Jack, The Kwons, and Hurley in the caves. Is this how civilizations form? The beach group still hopes to be rescued while the cave group is "digging in," or as Sayid said, "admitting defeat." Live together, die alone? Not quite there yet.

Further Questions:

1. Who were "Adam and Eve?"

2. What were the black and white rocks about?

3. What does Sun's father do?

4. How did Jin get blood all over him?

5. How does Locke know so much about nature?

6. What are Kate's trust issues?

7. Will Locke choose the beach or the caves?

Stallone and company better than ever in The Expendables 2

Good men get better with age. Good action stars even more so.

Sylvester Stallone together with director Simon West has achieved the near impossible with the sequel to his blockbuster action film, The Expendables--not only is it a successful second installment, but a film so remarkable in its own right that there's just no beating it. This is all the bad ass you've ever dreamed of, and more, too.

Stallone reprises his role as Barney Ross, who, together with his team of mercenaries from the previous film plus newcomers Billy (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Nan Yu), is strong-armed into another mission at the behest of an unnamed government agency led by Mr. Church (Bruce Willis). A walk in the park, Church tells Barney, but it's clear enough that it won't be--not only is the targeted material inside a dangerous spring-loaded mechanism whose safe changes its code every sixty seconds, but once recovered, the goods are hijacked by a new team of mercenaries led by a man named Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme); in the battle over the goods, one of Barney's men is executed. Forgetting the mission and motivated purely by revenge for their fallen brother, the team pursues Vilain, whose end game is to excavate and sell weapons-grade plutonium. Ultimately the team must decide whether to simply retaliate or to save the world while they're at it. They choose wisely, of course, but not without a little help from their friends.

The film works wonderfully in that it's good writing, great visual storytelling, and above all, fun. This is an incredibly violent story, but done in an unapologetic way that revels in its excess; bad guys aren't just shot, they're shot, stabbed, and occasionally run over, all at once. In one of the early scenes where Jet Li suddenly finds himself unarmed inside a kitchen full of attackers, the fight simply shifts from guns and knives to pots and pans, each metallic bludgeon sounding more like a carefully composed percussion solo than a man fighting for his life. Gamers, are you watching? They're doing all this for real.

Also good for laughs is the continual self-reflexive stand the film takes in not only assembling basically every action star from the eighties onto one screen ("Who's next, Rambo?" one asks another in the midst of an all-out battle) but in that these guys know each other, they know the tag-lines, and they've all seen each others' films (clearly crafted by a screenwriter who knows his film history). The fight choreography is nothing short of amazing, especially in Jason Statham's scenes, and attention to little details like props ("Knock, Knock," on a tank's cannon among other choice stenciled phrases) and classic music ("Crystal Blue Persuasion,")--extremely well done. This stuff made for a literally smashing experience.

Ironic, isn't it? Best-selling books are getting less cerebral while action films get smarter? Keep 'em coming, Sly, keep 'em coming.

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, episode 5, White Rabbit

(clink, clink)

White Rabbit

Events: Through young Jack's flashback, we learn that he got beat up after coming to another boy's defense at school, and despite being warned that it would happen, Jack stubbornly did it anyway. As his father relaxes in his den and clinks the ice in his lowball, he shares a story about a child's surgery with Jack and then imparts the following advice on his son: Don't try to save everyone, because when you fail, you just don't have what it takes. Jack's father, in contrast, has what it takes; he washed his hands after the child died on his operating table, came home, watched Carol Burnette, and had a drink, all easily, and with a clear conscience.

On the island, Jack rushes out into the ocean where both Boone and another woman are struggling. He can only save one person at a time; he chooses to save Boone, and the woman dies. As tensions mount over the woman's death, Claire's weakness, and the exhausted water supply, Jack once again catches a glimpse of the man he saw before, (which turns out to be his father) but Kate assures him he's hallucinating from sleep deprivation. After chasing the man into the jungle, Jack stumbles over a cliff and dangles for a moment before being rescued by John Locke, who apparently knew just where to find him. The two have a conversation about what Jack is chasing, which Locke calls "the white rabbit," and before departing, Locke urges Jack to find what he's looking for so he can effectively lead the people. Echoing his father's words from the flashback, Jack says, "I don't know how to help them. I'll fail. I don't have what it takes."

"Crazy people don't think they're crazy."

Through more flashbacks we see that Jack was sent to Sydney by his mother to bring back his father, and that there had been some sort of falling out between the two men, as Jack hadn't spoken to him in two months. As it turns out, the elder Doctor Shephard, in a drugged or drunken condition, suffered a heart attack in Sydney; Jack cries as he identifies the body and then again as he sits alone by a campfire, remembering it. The image of his father doesn't return but through the sounds of ice clinking in a glass, something leads Jack to a water source, where he finds the coffin that should have held his father's body, empty.

Greater Meaning: Isn't it strange, seeing someone with intelligence, status, and leadership abilities, struggling with a confidence problem? The bigger issue here is that Jack is flawed, just like the rest of us! And through having everyone second-guess his choices on the island ("who appointed you our savior?") Jack relives his own father's lack of confidence and suffers for it again and again. The episode is important, not only for what it explains about Jack's history but in that it shows us just how unfair we can be to our leaders, who are human beings, too. Jack's departure from the beach shows that the survivors are lost without him; or as Locke explains in the jungle, "they need someone to tell them what to do." Jack answers back, "I'm not a leader." But he is! Locke, a bit older and clearly more comfortable on the island, suggests that everything that has happened to them has happened for a reason. What is Jack's reason, is he being tested? And how does his father's undervaluing his sensitivities factor into everything else that's happening?

There are overwhelmingly huge references to religion in this episode, and instead of piecing them together in effort to overexplain (or perhaps ruin) future happenings in the narrative, we'll just leave it at that. Should you be interested in the similarities, you can check out Wikipedia and get your geek on over there.

Further Questions:

1. What did Jack do? ("you don't get to say 'I can't,' not after what you did.")

2. Is the man in the suit really Jack's father?

3. What were all those creepy dolls by the water?

4. Why is the coffin empty?

5. Why doesn't "the monster" find Jack in the valley?

6. Does Claire ever find a hairbrush?

And is there more to Sun than meets the eye? Join me next week for House of the Rising Sun.

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, episode 4, Walkabout

Walkabout

Events: Opening with a repeat look at the crash, this time from John Locke's perspective, the episode is exciting and busy with a lot of reveals. As the survivors first struggle with what they fear is another encounter with the "jungle monster" in the plane's fuselage (it turns out to be wild boars) they realize that beyond supernatural concerns, they have two very concrete, immediate problems: there are dead bodies everywhere and food has run out. Jack suggests they burn the bodies inside the fuselage to create a rescue signal; John Locke, armed with practical knowledge and about twenty specialty knives, volunteers to hunt the boar for food. Through Locke's flashbacks we learn that he led a uneventful perhaps unsatisfying life, and that he had been planning a trip to Australia for a walkabout, or physical journey of "spiritual renewal." During a hunting expedition with Kate and Michael, a group of boar attack and leave Michael wounded and Locke disoriented on the ground; when Kate protests Locke's wish to continue on alone, he repeats what he earlier told his  boss, "Don't tell me what I can't do."

WHO DAT?

As the group on the beach gathers firewood, prepares the fuselage, and organizes a memorial service for the victims, Locke, alone in the jungle, encounters "the monster," which was announced by several trees being leveled and the token monster-noises (some sounding curiously like Locke's adding machine in the flashback). The two face each other for a moment, and not until much later when Locke emerges from the jungle pulling a slaughtered boar do we find out that "the monster," still unseen by viewers, apparently allowed him to go on his way, unharmed. Toward the conclusion of the episode, Jack, divorced from any emotion over the memorials of the dead, twice sees a tall man in a dark suit and white shoes near the jungle whom he follows. Locke emerges in the mysterious man's place, and later lies to Michael about having seen "the monster" at all. As the fuselage burns and Claire reads off the names of the departed, Locke's eyes travel over to the wheelchair that had been his own before the crash. Once again, we are shown a flashback of the initial crash scene, but this time with much more understanding and emotion---Locke's secret is a miracle.

Greater Meaning: Through this episode we learn a great deal about John Locke---he was belittled by his boss, he was rejected by a woman named Helen, he was a paraplegic---but above all of this, he seemed adamant about making the Walkabout, despite his physical disability, saying several times, it was "his destiny." The episode opens with Locke's eye, just as the pilot episode opened with Jack's; as Kate's episode (Tabula Rasa) in between the two did not open with the same close up shot, we must assume that Jack and John are of greater importance or equality.

Don't tell me what I can't do!

In terms of anatomy, one cannot ignore the symbolism of Locke's connection (through his legs and feet) to the physical world, or in this case, the island, specifically. As Locke wiggled his right toe in the opening shots of the episode, his legs began to function after four years in a wheelchair; this causes not only a physical but also a spiritual renewal (later he tells Walt that a miracle happened to him). Thus, John Locke is a new man on the island. Reborn. It's interesting that despite the physical change, Locke already seems mysteriously at home; he plays backgammon, fashions a dog-whistle, and sits happily in the rain, all within the first few days of the crash. As a would-be leader, his knowledge and abilities are practical, primal. He has aim, skill, strength, and confidence, which is a bit at odds with the man we saw in the flashback; such a significant difference has a way of making the idea of destiny seem extremely relevant.

Jack, who is every bit as important, by contrast, is more at home in the scientific, cerebral world. Where Sayid earlier voiced hesitation in burning the victim's bodies for spiritual reasons, Jack focuses only on the immediate, logical needs of the survivors; "We don't have time to sort out everybody's God." When Claire suggests Jack lead the memorial service he replies bluntly, "It's not my thing." Jack comforts Rose on the beach but can't share her faith that her husband might still be alive. Man of Faith, Man of Science. Both useful, but which will lead?

Further Questions:

1. Who was Helen?

2. Why was Locke in a wheelchair?

3. Why did "the monster" let Locke live?

4. Why is Locke able to walk on the island?

5. Where exactly are they?

6. Why is Jack so anti-faith?

7. Who is the man in the dark suit?

8. How does Rose know Bernard is alive?

9. Why did Locke lie to Michael about seeing "the monster?"

Join me next week for a closer look into the enigma that is Jack Shephard in White Rabbit.

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, episode 3, Tabula Rasa

The face of a criminal?

Tabula Rasa

Events: The episode opens with a huge reveal for Jack (not for us, as we learned in the pilot's second half that Kate was wearing handcuffs next to the Marshal)---Kate is a criminal. The Marshal, feverish and sputtering, insists over and over that Kate is dangerous and shouldn't be trusted. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that Kate worked for an Australian farmer named Ray Mullen, who turned her in for reward money, but her crime still remains a mystery. Meanwhile, the group that went on the transceiver-hike makes its way down the mountain again, avoiding the jungle after dark. Once everyone is back on the beach again, Sayid announces that their mission was not successful while Kate shares with Jack the discovery of the French Woman's transmission. The Marshal's health continues to deteriorate, and Jack starts to take criticism from the other survivors for wasting resources to keep the man alive. The conclusion chooses to linger not on Kate's crime or the Marshal's unpleasant death but on forgiveness and new beginnings. Just after Walt explains to his father that the bald man, Mr. Locke, told him "a miracle happened here," Jack tells Kate, "we should all be able to start over," (the title of the episode, translated, means Blank Slate). As the instrumental soundtrack draws the episode to a close there come some extremely tender, human moments: Boone fixes Shannon's sun glasses with a paper clip and smiles affectionately as he drops them into her hand; Sayid tosses Sawyer a piece of fruit; and Walt is reunited with Vincent, his dog. That said, however, there was something extremely unsettling about that last, almost-scowling wraparound shot of Mr. Locke (?).

The face of a criminal.

Greater Meaning: The crafty significance of Locke's backgammon game (Pilot Episode, part 2) seems to be its representation of the theme of duality (two sides, one is light, one is dark) given the events and differences in philosophy seen on the island thus far, and Jack is key. As he searches the fuselage for medicine, Sawyer ransacks luggage for contraband. As Jack does his best to treat his patient, the Marshal, Hurley faints at the sight of blood and the other survivors start pressuring Jack to put him out of his misery. As a doctor, Jack's first principle is to do no harm; his world is scientific, structured. The interesting point comes (specifically in this episode) when Jack's role as a doctor and as a leader intersect. A utilitarian leader would have perhaps conceded the point that a wounded man, suffering loudly, should be killed for mercy's sake and in order to preserve supplies for the rest of the group. Jack, though trained as a surgeon and no doubt familiar with the concept of triage (clearly aware that the man's condition was dire), did not act as a utilitarian and sacrificed materials to save just one man.

We should all be able to start over.

Kate, too, is an interesting character for this reason--her nature is at odds with itself as she's a peaceful, compassionate felon. She sews Jack's wound for him, breaks up fighting between Sawyer and Sayid, needs help in disarming a weapon, and in the flashback, saves the life of the man who ratted her out to the law. And through all these events, or in spite of them, we cannot help but wonder more about her (and her crime).

Further Questions:

She's dangerous.

1. What did Kate do?

2. What are Kate's trust issues?

3. What was the miracle that Locke told Walt about?

4. Did Ray Mullen ever get his money?

5. Was Locke upset about something at the end?

6. Was the Marshal telling the truth?