I posted a teaser photo of this heart a few days back and I know that my swap partner has gotten it, so now I can post the whole thing. The mirrors are large sequins, stitched on with a shisha embroidery technique. Here’s a great tutorial at Joyful Abode. (I did just the foundation stitches because I like the star motif that makes.) Around each mirror are a combination of blanket stitch, back stitch, chain stitch and chinese knots. I don’t do french knots, I don’t like them. Chinese knots work like this (click to see it bigger):
The sparkly edge is a “picot beaded edge”, which my friend Donna taught me how to do. I wrote up a little diagram for you here.
That turned out loverly!