Last Thursday I was working quite happily on one of the stitched models for Three of Diamonds, when I remembered that I needed to write four invitations; we’re asking some friends to afternoon tea next month and I wanted to get the invitations to them in plenty of time – people often have such a lot to do in the summer! You can make some really nice invitations on the computer using clip art of teapots and sandwiches and I was about to do just that when I stopped, shocked at myself. There was I, a stitcher, planning to make invitations on the computer!

Surely it should be possible to whip up something stitched, preferably different for each of our guests? Time constraints (I wanted to hand out the invitations at church on Sunday) meant it couldn’t be anything too elaborate, and it should be something I could do in different colours (the easiest way of making them all different). I decided on the little motif I’ve been using to try out different fabric and thread combinations, and which also forms the basis for the Mini Kits. A piece of Hardanger fabric that would hold all four was quickly found, mounted in a 6″ hoop and marked out with pencil. Now for the colours. Thinking it would be easiest to start from the cards, I picked four from my stock and then set out to find Caron threads to go with them. They turned out to be Cameo, Blue Spruce, Iris and Burnished Coin.

It’s a motif I’ve stitched so often by now, especially in its woven-bars-and-dove’s-eye version, that I don’t need a chart for it and can just stitch away. Now to decide how to attach them to the cards. Well, double-sided tape is my standard method, but I still needed to decide whether to stick them on straight or at an angle, and whether to cut the fabric straight or with chamfered corners. Having gone for the straight position with chamfered corners I then managed to stick one of them on while the card was upside down. Oops.

Never mind, we’ll just put the text on the other side of the stitching and pretend we intended to make one different all along. And here they are, written and ready to go! Now for deciding which biscuits, cakes and sandwiches to make …