Resembling a pleasant confluence of watercolor painting and photo montage, Katie Pasquini Masopust"s quilts are far from traditional. A compulsive picture-taker, Masopust developed a unique approach to quilt making based on her photos, layering shapes and colors of fabrics onto the design suggested by the original composition. In Ghost Layers & Color Washes, she shares the secrets of her innovative method, explaining the process of creating the base block, adding the ghost layer (abstract or geometric shapes that seem to float through the image), painting a simple watercolor wash on paper to suggest a color scheme, and combining all the layers into a cohesive design. She also explains color sorting, cutting and turning the appliqué pieces, sewing onto stabilizer, and machine quilting. One project guides readers through the steps of making a fruit-in-a-bowl quilt; several dozen quilts by the author and some of her students offer further ideas for exploring this fascinating technique. --Amy Handy