I recently finished a card kit entitled “To Bethlehem”, produced by the Framecraft Company in the West Midlands area of Britain. Designed by Julie McLaughlin, this image is one of the more authentic that I’ve seen.
It shows Mary and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem, an obligatory trip required by the Roman authorities for purposes of a census. The distance they had to travel from Nazareth was about 70 miles, and would have taken four to five days. It is likely that they travelled most, if not all, of the way by donkey, with rests at suitable intervals, and that they were part of a group. Travelling alone was dangerous, as the roads were infested by brigands; murder and theft were common occurrences.
It must have been an exhausting trip for Mary, who was hugely pregnant by this time. The embroidery design shows her seated on the donkey, with Joseph standing alongside. She is sitting in a slumped position, looking down; the reins of the donkey held loosely in her right hand.
This card kit was not a recent product of Framecraft. In fact, when I opened the package, there was such a musty smell that I deduced it had been dredged up from the deeper forgotten recesses of some warehouse.
The mount supplied was a CraftaCard, a type I hadn’t seen before, with self-sealing edges. The adhesive used for the self-sealing I had doubts about, since the card was old stock, so when mounting I used the double-sided adhesive tape as usual.
My only criticism of the kit was that there was no organiser card included, and this would have been helpful as there were 18 shades of thread to sort and manage.
But these comments should not detract from a truly lovely design. I enjoyed every stitch, loved the subtle shading, and the finished product is beautiful.
