could you use press+seal as a stensil? have any aussies seen it on the shelves here?where

This sounds like a great idea. How do you get the chalk pencil off? I used one and it seems like the only way is to wash the quilt. No problem with that except right now I'm finishing an oversize king and my washer is not big enough to handle that.

I tried pounce and it did not work for me. I used special pencils and they broke all the time and it took hours. Sewing over paper was cumbersome and the stitches did not come out as well for me. Never mind getting that paper from under the stitches. With the last quilt I bought kids washable crayola sharp point markers and drew free hand feathers. I was done in no time and fortunately it did all wash out with the first wash. I did not leave it on for long and I did not iron over it. I am definitely planning to use it again. I enjoyed the freedom of drawing on the quilt and then just sewing over the lines. Besure to try it out on scrap before doing this. Also I did it on a quilt for my DD that is to be used. Something you do not plan on washing would obvioulsy not be suitable.

I tried the Press & Seal method once, the "permanent" pen I was using rubbed off on me and then onto my quilt! :( Thankfully I was able to remove the stains! I usually use Golden Threads quilting paper, it works well for me. I also freehand some of my quilting designs directly on the quilt with a fine pencil.

I use the tissue paper that you get in the gift wrap section of Walgreens, Walmart, KMart, etc - the stuff you put in with holiday gifts. If it's wrinkled or creased, you can press it with the iron to smooth it out a bit.
Trace the image onto the tissue paper and then pin the paper to the quilt and stitch on the lines. I have found that if you are quilting on a light fabric, it's best to use colored tissue paper with the image traced with white pencil as the graphite color will transfer into the stitch holes and the quilting will look "dirty". Darker fabrics work fine with white tissue paper and image in normal pencil. When done stitching, just pull out the paper. For little pieces stuck under stitching, use pointy tweezers to get out.
If you want to try the P&S, it's pretty much the same technique - trace the image onto the "non-sticky" side of the P&S and then pin onto the fabric, stitch on the lines, and peel off when done using tweezers if necessary. The stickiness of the P&S also helps keep it in place. I used a fine point Sharpie to trace the image - it doesn't smear and also didn't seem to transfer into the stitch holes in the fabric. I just has issues with the P&S gumming up my machine.
Hope this helps....

I have used the fine point Sharpie before and it did transfer into the stitch holes in the fabric.

P&S is Press and Seal plastic food wrap.

I have used paper from a chiropractors office. It comes in a roll about 12-15 inches wide. It is great for borders as you can draw the entire border and pin to quilt. Tears off fairly easy. It is the paper they use for under your face on the table. Not real expensive either. I belong to a guild and one of the girls got a box. I think the rolls were around $3.00 each. A lot of paper for the money and very nice size to work with.

I have some of that paper but I used to use it as a table topper when I was painting tole pieces. I do like that idea of using it for border designs, but it is a bit stiff and I was wondering if it stayed flat enough to hand quilt over. I usually end up marking my designs with pencil and it does wash off. I have also used the washable crayons but the points are not sharp enough for me. Lots of good ideas here - just have to combine some and find out if it works for you.

I read on another forum about using pages of an old phone book instead of printer paper. So that's what I did. Tore the page out of the phone book and copied onto it. This was much easier to tear off after quilting than copy paper. I also made sure my originial was dark and bold so that when it was copied, the pattern would show up well on the printed phone book page.

I draw the quilting design on lightweight water soluble stabilizer and LIGHTLY spray baste it to the quilt top. The free motion al of the top. Since I wash all my quilts after binding anyway, the stabilizer does not need to be picked out! the most exciting thing is the big reveal after the washing cause it looks pretty funny 'til then.