Quilting Arts TV

The other day I ordered the set of DVDs making up the first season of Quilting Arts TV on PBS. Pretty reasonably priced, especially with a pre-publication discount. If you get a chance to see the series or to own the DVDs, do so. The production values suck and the time they spend on each technique seemed too short for me but the techniques are intriguing and apply to many applications, not just quilts. Heck, any show that pairs Sue Hauseman of America Quilts fame with Lelsy Riley of mixed media fame on the same show can't be all bad.

One of the very early shows had a wonderful technique for making stencils. Jane Dunnewald of 'Complex Cloth: A Comprehensive Guide to Surface Design' fame used two pieces of fusible interfacing, cut through both pieces in a simple design, fused a piece of tulle between the interfacing pieces, coated the uncut areas with latex house paint and stenciled with fluid acrylics. Sort of like silk screen stencils on the cheap. I was so fascinated that I tried the technique.

Here are the stencils I came up with:

and here is my effort at using them on watercolor paper:

Things I learned - I am not an artist, a sharp exacto knife is required, simple designs are best and good stenciling technique takes some practise. However, I had fun trying figure this all out and I really want to try it again while taking into account the lessons I learned. Also, now that I have seen all of the programs and there are many, many techniques I need to try. When I do I will definitely let you know how they turn out.