I recently purchased Johanna Basford's book Secret Garden. Johanna is an illustrator who creates intricate, hand drawn illustrations predominantly, although not exclusively, in black and white.
Secret Garden is an interactive activity book which takes you on a ramble through a secret garden created in beautifully detailed pen-and-ink illustrations. The illustrations in this Inky Treasure Hunt and Colouring Book are just divine. I was drawn to this book for the potential of some of these images to be quilted.
With Johanna's permission, I enlarged one or her illustrations and spent some fun time playing on my new quilting machine. I was thrilled with the fine detail I was able to quilt in the piece. My Secret Garden measures about 24 inches in diameter and was quilted on Oakshott Cotton fabric using Wonderfil Invisafil 100wt thread. The quilt was marked with the design and quilted freehand.
My Secret Garden - Detail
Johanna's next book Enchanted Forest: An Inky Quest and Colouring Book is due to be released soon - I wonder what inspiration awaits there!
