Recycled Heart Ornaments

Decorate your tree with this homemade Christmas craft. Make Recycled Heart Ornaments from Rebecca Parsons out of old quilts - it's a cheap and easy project!


 

Materials:

• An old, ragged quilt to cut up
• Old buttons
• 6 strand floss in color to coordinate with quilt
• Sharp needle with large eye

Instructions:

1. Lay quilt flat on hard surface and choose a place to begin cutting.
    
2. Cut hearts with sharp scissors.
    
3. Thread your needle with 2 strands of floss as long as you can handle. I used an arm length plus some.
    
4. Chose a button or two that will look good on the heart. Place it on the heart in position and run thread through a button hole and down through the heart and return it back up through another hole. Leave a 3-4 inch tail at the beginning and the end. Repeat this process several times to anchor the heart. Tie the ends together several times to secure.
    
5. Run your thread into one side of the fabric quilt and through the batting if possible coming out of an edge. Do a blanket stitch around the edges of the heart. See the how to on blanket stitch below.

Blanket Stitch:

1. Pull floss through back side of the fabric.
   
   
    
2. Move over about 1/4″ and do that again from the back side to front. Come down so the stitch is aligned along the bottom.
   
   
    
3. Before you pull the floss tight, run the needle back through the loop of the floss making sure your thread loops under the needle, pull it through until it lies tightly against the emerging thread. You’ll see that each new stitch secures and holds the loop of the previous stitch.
   
   
    
4. Then pull taught, not tight. It will create a L shape. The first one always looks a bit odd, but the rest will be okay.
    
5. Repeat step 2 through 4 around the heart.
    
6. When you come to the end, take your thread to the back over the last loop to secure it. Bring your needle back through the fold to hide the ending and run it back through the batting an inch or so and cut.