I Heart Sea Glass...

OR...What to make for your Sister's Birthday when she probably has enough quilts already!!!

A Heart Mini Quilt in Sea Glass Colours, glued to a 5 x 7 inch fabric covered painters canvas!!

This was very easy to throw together, here's how... To get the canvas ready to glue the mini quilt to, I first glued on a rectangle of white paper to cover the writing that was on the back of the canvas. I then used some perle 8 threads to plait a little hanger string which I also glued onto the back of the canvas.

Next, I covered the front of the canvas with fabric, folded it over onto the back, glued it and used a thin masking tape on the edges for good measure. A little messy, but it works!

My inspiration for this mini quilt was two things....firstly I have always adored the sea glass we find on the beaches around here (though my efforts for collecting said sea glass are pathetic but these few pieces sit in my kitchen window so I can see them everyday!!)...

 ...the pattern was inspired by Keiko Goke's quilt on the front of her fabulous book All my Thanks and Love. This book is written in Japanese, but the pictures tell a wonderful story anyway!!

I made a rough drawing onto a piece of paper and that became my pattern!

I then transfered it to freezer paper, cut out the heart shapes, and glued them onto their background squares. (I use Roxanne's Glue-Baste-It for this, it holds the applique shapes onto the background beautifully without needing pins, and if you put it on in the wrong spot, it just washes out with a little water).

Once I had appliqued the hearts onto the squares using the needle turn method, the 9 squares were all sewn together.

Next step was to lay a piece of wadding behind the mini quilt and the backing fabric right side to right side on the front of the mini quilt and stitch around all four edges. Cut a hole in the backing fabric, turn it all right side out and poke those corners out (oops I chopped off the edges in this photo!!).

My embroidery skills are a little rusty, so I found a fabulous lady called Wendi on YouTube under the name of ShinyHappyWorld who showed me how to do this seed stitch and split stitch.

Signed and dated and ready to post.

Mmm, I quite like the Sea Glass Hearts sitting amongst my Burleighware jugs, perhaps I will have to make my sister something else!!! xo