Pixelated Hearts

A couple of weeks ago I shared a link to a pixelated heart project - and now I've finally made my own!  You can find the original tutorial here on the Sew Mama Sew blog.

But since mine is a little different from the original tutorial I thought I'd show you how I made mine.  First of all, I didn't have any of that nifty pre-printed grid interfacing.  If you have it, that's great.  If not, it is easy to make your own!  I used the lightest weight fusible interfacing that I had.  

Decide how big you want to cut your squares (mine were 1.5").  Lay the interfacing over your cutting mat and using the lines on your mat and a ruler, just trace the grid.  You'll want to trace onto the smooth (non-fusible) side!  I used any ol' pen I had laying around.  

If you want to make a different sized mini, here's the math for you!

Now that you have figured out what size to make, and how many fabric squares you'll need, time to start cutting!  Cut the fabric squares the SAME SIZE as the grid you traced onto the interfacing. 

I went with a blue/green/aqua combo so it could stay on my wall all year 'round.  You'll need the most of the low-volume (or background) squares.  I did end up removing the outer row of background squares so I only needed 50.  And I tried to use each print only once, but I think a couple of duplicates slipped in there.

Use the diagram above to lay out your fabric squares in the shape of a heart.  Now just follow the original tutorial (here) to fuse everything down and then to sew your rows and columns together!

I quilted mine with some simple straight lines- nice and fast!  My new pixelated heart is up on my mini wall!  And my collection is growing - slowly.  What mini should I make next?  Do you have a favorite?