Monday 9 January 2017

Three Wise Men

Grim determination made me hang on until the end and the panel containing Balthasar, Melchior and Gaspar is now completed -  just a little too late for Epiphany but at just the right time to satisfy me.
I don't really enjoy cross stitching pictures and wonder to myself why I even chose this chart so many years ago.   Probably it was when I got sick and tired of everything Christmas being Santa Claus!   Who knows?   I did add the gold star in the gap - after I took the photograph.
But I am well over half way now and the next few bands of the sampler are interesting specialty stitches and will bring me much closer to the hardanger treat in store at the end.
My only firm New Years Resolution in 2017 is to walk 1500 kilometres by December 31st.   So I have mapped out a 3.5km walk around my neighbourhood and another exactly 1km at work.  Simple mathematics tells me that seven days a week I must do a nightly walk and that I need to do the one kilometre circuit at work each day if I am to reach my target.   So far so good:-)   But this burst of energetic resolve will reduce my evening stitching time :-(

9 comments:

Pamela said...

This is beautiful! My stitching preferences have changed over the years, but sometimes I just have to go backto something I chose long ago.

Mary's Thread said...

I'm working on this too! I am behind you, at the shepherds. I am glad for the bands to break up the pictures-but I still love this piece. I think I was drawn the the verse. Good luck with it! I think it's looking beautiful!

deb said...

The Wise Men look marvelous. Seems like you stitched them up rather quickly - weren't we looking at just the camel and squirrel a couple days ago?

1500 km? Had to have google convert that to miles for me (though I *should* be able to approximate - for shame) and yikes, you are seriously ambitious!! I don't think I'd even commit to that distance on my stationary bike. I'm in awe, and you're inspiring me to do better.

Queeniepatch said...

This is the kind of piece of embroidery that you can display at Christmas every year and look back at the struggle and enjoyment you had while working on it.
Will you go the same route every day on your walks? I think it might be a good idea to have an alternative course, for variation, weather condition and safety. If there are things that change with the seasons (flowers and trees, or ponds with birds) you will get a lot of interest out of seeing how things change. Enjoy!

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

This is such a lovely design, I'm sure you looked at the speciality stitches and fell in love!
I used to walk a lot more when the children were in the pram. 3.5km is just over 2 miles and I easily did that most days. It is exactly 3 miles to each of the boys' schools and I can walk that quite happily but I don't know if I would want to do it every day!

Leonore Winterer said...

I love this design, and even though you didn't enjoy stitching too much, it's turning out quite lovely. 1500km of walking in a year is quite a bit, but a great goal for the year too!

Mary - Lecoeurceltique said...

I love this design. I'm sure it is satisfying to complete another band. Good luck with your walking plan.

Von said...

I understand how tiring the picture sections of the design can be now that I have two similar ones in my working pile. Lots of color changes and I find I need to mark my chart after every little bit or I mess up!

Z said...

Your piece is looking great.

I'm still on the angels - it's only been 8 years lol.