Tech Know Quilter Masters members recently completed a class on Sashiko Quilts. Their challenge for the month was to design a Family Crest (Kamon) quilt. I am pretty pumped to share their designs with you. For my EQ tutorial, I decided to walk you through my design process as I created a personal Family Crest quilt. There is no video as I wasn't sure how many of you would want to draft a "Schell Kamon Quilt", but there are plenty of ideas and I do share the EQ tools I used in creating my design. Scroll down for the complete tutorial. Tech Know Quilters Masters Challenge - Japanese Crest (Kamon) ChallengeThis particular challenge was definitely advanced. Not only did they need to locate or draw their own Japanese Crest, they had to figure out how to incorporate their design in a quilt. Some got as far as identifying a crest. Others designed an entire quilt. I am super excited to share their creativity with you. Fran Heisey My name appears to have neither a crest nor any particular meaning, so I decided to use a crane as my inspiration. We have sandhill cranes on the farm and once even a whooping crane, that now spends his summers in the neighborhood. This image was found on Pinterest. The crest became stitching on my quilt. Tech Know Quilters Masters Program Tech Know Quilters Masters Program is open to an current (or former) Tech Know Quilter member that has completed at least 12 months of Tech Know Quilter classes. Send me a note if you would like to learn more. Designing a Kamon (Japanese Crest) QuiltKamon, or family crests, are thought to have come into use around the tenth century among the Japanese aristocracy. Several thousand different crests are known to exist. These stylized motifs are characterized by a strength of design that makes each a striking piece of graphic art. Kamon Symbols and the Five Major Crests The main categories for the symbols used in kamon are animals, plants, nature, buildings and vehicles, and receptacles and patterns.
Designing the "Schell" Crest
Using Wreathmaker I combined three of my crest motifs. Hint: Play with the slider bars under cluster spacing and resize cluster until you have a design you like. Complementary DesignsI then began thinking about what else I could include in my quilt. I decided to see what else I could find with the "shell" concept. Seashell WreathA search of "shell" in the EQ library, yield some quilting stencils that contained seashells. They were part of a Quiltmaker Design Add-On Collection that I had purchased a long time ago. Stencils are typically put on layer 3 and are used for quilting designs.
Seashell Border BlockClamshell BackgroundJapanese ScriptI found a site that allowed me to enter a name and it gave me the Japanese name along with the name written in Japanese script. You can convert your name to Japanese here. Schell translated to Sukeru. Sukeru means to be transparent, to show through. I did a screen shot of the symbols and traced them in EQ as an applique motif. Using the Bezier curve, I traced the center of each symbol. And then applied the brush stroke to finish the patches. Schell Koman Quilt Design
Here is my final Schell Koman quilt. I hope you enjoyed hearing about the design process and this will encourage you to venture into your own original quilt design. I would love to see what you come up with. Please feel free to share pictures in the Learning EQ Facebook group. When Diana Carter saw the picture of my block, she decided to draft it herself and created her own quilt.
2 Comments
It’s amazing to see how each participant tied their crest inspiration to their personal or family story. Do you think these kinds of challenges encourage quilters to connect more deeply with their heritage or explore entirely new cultural influences? The variety of designs shared here is truly inspiring!
Reply
Kari Schell
1/13/2025 10:44:38 pm
Thanks for your comment. I think quilters are inspired by so much that is around them. With different challenges each month, they have lots of opportunities to get creative. I do think their responsesto the challenge was pretty amazing.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Kari SchellElectric Quilt Expert and Educator and Pattern Designer. Categories
All
Archives
December 2024
|