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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.  Renae Frank Butler My design was inspired by my knowledge to learn, explore and teach.
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.
 Julie Pedersen I added applique and stencils to complete this quilt....Perfect for our cat-crazy family.
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.
 Final Schell Crest Design Created in EQ 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 Block
Clamshell Background
Japanese 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.  Schell Japanese Conversion 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.  Final Schell Koman (Japanese Crest) 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.  Dianna Carter
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Ready for a new year? Learn to draft a balloon using applique tools within Electric Quilt 8. If you have not yet used the brush stroke, you will find that it is perfect for so many parts of the balloon motif.
After completing your basic balloon, have fun decorating it. I decided to give my balloon a party hat.
Check out the full video and learn some of my favorite tricks in working in the applique worktable for EQ8.
For extra playtime, I drafted a couple of quilts using my balloons.
Here are my quilts -- one to welcome in 2025 and the other to welcome new members to Tech Know Quilters. 
Happy New Year Colored with Decades Jazz Age (October 2024 Free Fabric of the Month)
Tech Know Quilters New Member Welcome Colored with Blooming Color (July 2024 Free Fabric of the Month)
I opened enrollment to new members this week -- in fact they all received their first formal lesson and their first step to mastery of Electric Quilt 8.
Drop my a note if you are interested in joining.
How will you celebrate the start of 2025? Feel free to post an EQ block or quilt in the Learning EQ Facebook Group.
Live webinar options on Monday and Tuesday. Make sure to register today!  How often do you look at a cute quilt on Pinterest or in a favorite magazine and wish you knew how you could harness your own inner creativity to create your own quilted work of art. I am super excited to share with you how to use your favorite blocks (or create new ones) -- and turn them into a personal masterpiece. Imagine a world where you can:
Join me for an enlightening live webinar where I will guide you through every step of the process, focusing on creating Mix and Match Winter Wall Hanging blocks and quilts. In this exclusive webinar, you'll:
Register now to secure your stop for this exclusive webinar.
Tech Know Quilters Month End ChallengeAt the end of each month, Tech Know Quilter members are challenged to apply what they learned during the month. Here are their recent submissions. Each person submitting a design, moved beyond replicating their lessons. They took the concepts and designed their own quilts. I think they did an awesome job.
I saw an image on Facebook where they used alphabet blocks to spell out a Christmas message in the shape of a Christmas tree.
After looking at this, I knew I could do something similar in Electric Quilt 8. I look forward to sharing how to do it in this weeks blog post. Before checking out the lesson, make sure to register for the free EQ8 webinar happening right after Christmas. I am looking forward to sharing a new projects (along with the insights in using Electric Quilt 8) in a live settings. Mix and Match Winter Wall Hanging Webinar Registration Now Open
How often do you look at a cute quilt on Pinterest or in a favorite magazine and wish you knew how you could harness your own inner creativity to create your own quilted work of art. I am super excited to share with you how to use your favorite blocks (or create new ones) -- and turn them into a personal masterpiece.
Imagine a world where you can:
Join me for an enlightening live webinar where I will guide you through every step of the process, focusing on creating Mix and Match Winter Wall Hanging blocks and quilts.
In this exclusive webinar, you'll:
Register now to secure your stop for this exclusive webinar.
Christmas Tree Typography Tutorial
Start by gathering (or creating) a collection of alphabet blocks.
Within Electric Quilt ,there are a few alphabets built into the EQ8 library including the following.. Letters and Numbers 1 and 2 -- These are part of Classic Pieced and are rotary cutting friendly patches. 
Letters and Numbers
Under Foundation Pieced blocks there are five different options
Under Motifs there are three different options.
Motifs are applique blocks that don't have a background.
Under overlaid you can find the Embellished Alphabet which combines pieced blocks with applique motifs.
Embellished Alphabet
For the Christmas Typography quilt, you can use any of the alphabets for your quilt.
However, if you chose an alphabet from the Motif library, the letters will not have a background. This will requiring putting your letters on layer 2 -- essentially separating the letters from the blocks. Or you need to create new blocks -- with a background.
I loved the Alphabet library under Motifs -- but knew I wanted a background for each block.
In the video I will take you through the process of how you can add a background to any Applique motif. It does take a little bit of time. But once you have completed the process, you can put them in your own personal library. This will ensure your blocks are easily imported into any EQ8 project.
A Surprise Christmas Gift for You
If that seems a bit daunting, I have a Christmas gift for you. Feel free to open before Christmas. It is a collection of the Alphabet Motif library from EQ8 -- with the Background added.
This will only be able to be used with EQ8. I have gone through and added backgrounds to the Alphabet library under motifs. I've set up a personal library (labeled Alphabet). In this library, I have three sub-categories:
In order to share this file on my website, I needed to compress and upload it as a .ZIP file. You can access and download the zip file by selecting the Alphabet with Background .BLK file button below.
After downloading to your computer, you will need to un-compress it. This process will vary depending on your operating system.
Once the file is uncompressed, place your .BLK file in your My EQ8>User Favorites folder. This will ensure will be accessible in EQ8. 
The Alphabet.BLK file cannot be opened -- so don't try to open it. However if you open Electric Quilt and go to libraires>My Favorite Blocks, you will find the Alphabet library and all the blocks. These blocks can be added to any project by selecting Select All Blocks followed by Add to Sketchbook. This will need to be done for each sub-category you wish to include in your project. 
Alphabet Motif Library Created under My Favorite Blocks
In the video tutorial, I will also share with you you a fast way to set up a horizontal strip quilt with 2" blocks (perfect for your Alphabet blocks).
Drop in your alphabet blocks to create your Christmas Typography tree. If you use my text, four of the blocks will need to be set on Layer 2. Color the alphabet blocks, the background, border and add a star for the top of the tree. All this is reviewed in the video tutorial.
Final Christmas Tree Typography Quilt
To make this quilt, I will cut out the letters on my Cricut Maker.
Any electronic cutting system would do (or you can use templates from EQ). For the squares, I would cut a collection of 2-1/2" x 2-1/2" green and tan scraps from my stash. I don't think I will need any new fabrics to finish this quilt.
I look forward to seeing what you do with this concept. What else could you do with adding words to the tree?
Share your quilts in the Learning EQ Facebook group.
This time of the year, I am always looking for gift ideas.
And we all know that quilted gifts are the best way to show that you care. I came up with an idea for a placemat that looks like the top of a package. Complete with bows (inspired by four patch blocks from the EQ8 library). I kept them simple -- so that there is plenty of time to piece and quilt these before your next holiday event. Scroll down for the tutorial. -- Announcement --
Make sure to get registered for the free Electric Quilt live webinar that will be happening right after Christmas (choose between times on December 30 or 31). More information below.
How often do you look at a cute quilt on Pinterest or in a favorite magazine and wish you knew how you could harness your own inner creativity to create your own quilted work of art. I am super excited to share with you how to use your favorite blocks (or create new ones) -- and turn them into a personal masterpiece.
Imagine a world where you can:
Join me for an enlightening live webinar where I will guide you through every step of the process, focusing on creating Mix and Match Winter Wall Hanging blocks and quilts.
In this exclusive webinar, you'll:
Register now to secure your stop for this exclusive webinar.
Gifted Placemats EQ8 Tutorial
While I used the White Linen Christmas Collection for the placemats in the video, for my extra projects I decided to play with:
Here are the blocks I used as inspiration for the "bow" portion of my placemats. These are from the Four Patch category in the EQ8 Block Library. But there are so many more to chose from.
Take a quarter of the inspiration blocks and draft it in the squares in the EasyDraw placemat block.
Watch the video tutorial for step by step instructions fon creating your own gifted placemats.
Here are the finished quilts from the video.
Turnstyle Placemat
Whirlpool Placemat
School Girls Puzzle Placemat
Flying-X Placemat
I am looking forward to see how you will design your placemat. Which block will you use for your bow? Share your design in the Learning EQ Facebook Group.
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Kari SchellElectric Quilt Expert and Educator and Pattern Designer. Categories
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