Yippee Ki Yay is Complete!

I teased in a previous post that I was doing another Bayeux Tapestry stitch piece, this one featuring a scene from the movie Die Hard. I'm thrilled to announce that the piece has been completed!

Yippee Ki Yay!

I'm really happy with how it turned out! I think the colours I chose work really well; I stayed true to the colours in the inspiration image in some places, but went rogue in others. For example, I made the outfit on Sgt. Powel in shades of blue to match the police uniform he wears in the movie, while the two FBI officers are in darker colours, like their suits. John McLean and Hans Gruber are in opposing yellow and black outfits, which gives them a kind of symmetry (embroidering him in a white undershirt wouldn't have matched the medieval vibes). The bright yellow also draws the eye to what is essentially the action of the scene: Gruber falling and McLean reaching out to him.

I tried a different stitching technique in this one, as well. For most things, I stitch the outline first and then fill in with the laid couchwork stitch that I explained in the previous post. This works well for most things, but can occasionally leave a bit of whitespace right next to the outline. For the details that indicate the folds in the drapes, that whitespace would be unacceptable, so I stitched the outline of the drapes, filled them in completely, then did more stem stitch on top for the details. I was worried that it would shift the threads in the stitches, but it didn't and I'm really happy with how that turned out.

This will work well for places where I want the stitch direction to be the same throughout, but still want some detail work in stem stitch. For places where I want the stitch direction to change, like in the capes on all the people, I will still use the outline first method. It's wonderful to have options. 

I loved working on this piece so much that I've decided to do a whole series of movie scenes in this way! I've started compiling a list of movies that have potential for this project. It's not as easy at it seems: the movie scenes have to be recognizable enough to not lose their meaning when depicted in a medieval art style, with an accompanying quote that translates well into the early modern English that has become a hallmark of this meme. I'll be asking my community to help pick my next piece in this series, so join my mailing list or follow me on Instagram to participate!