In one embodiment, a method of repairing a heart valve accesses an interior of a patient's beating heart minimally invasively and inserts one or more sutures into each of a plurality of heart valve leaflets with a suturing instrument. The suture ends of the sutures are divided into suture pairs, with each pair including one suture end from a suture inserted into a first valve leaflet and one suture end from a suture inserted into a second valve leaflet. One or more tourniquet tubes is advanced over the suture pairs to the leaflets to draw the sutures together to coapt the leaflets and then the sutures are secured in that position.
