Mary Mashuta

Foolproof Walking-Foot Quilitng Designs by Mary Mashuta is really an encyclopedia of stitches you can do with your walking foot. What is a walking foot? A walking foot is a sewing machine foot that hooks over your sewing machine lever, and its purpose is to keep a stack of fabric all even, with the top area being fed through the sewing machine at the same speed as the bottom level. It is good for stitching in the ditch, keeping plaids lined up evenly, and quilting. The only real drawback to show more using a walking foot is that you need to turn your fabric every time the pattern changes direction.
Foolproof Walking-Foot Quilting Designs first shows pictures of patterns found in nature and man-made architecture. Next, Mashuta shows how to make your own patterns using clear contact paper, which can adhere to the top of the fabric, for you to sew around. Patterns advance in difficutly, and the difficulty of each pattern is rated with a number of alarm clocks assigned to the pattern.
The last chapter covers the art of sashiko, done on the sewing machine. The patterns are very detailed, but they are also detailed if you want to do these patterns by hand.
I reccommend this book for quilters, because I have never seen a book that covers frree-motion patterns to this extent. Get out that walking foot! show less

This book steps you through selecting thread, needles and quilt patterns that are applicable to quilting with a walking foot. Wonderful closeup photos really help visualize what is being discussed.

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lots of great ideas on how to jazz up patchwork design with stripes