Designing a Quilt with AI

This year the Gotham Quilts team had a great adventure. You may have read about some of it already, in my QuiltCon post. That was only a small part of the story. Another aspect was how we delved into designing quilts using AI, or Artificial Intelligence. (The other AI is Adobe Illustrator, and we use that all of the time, but it isn’t all that exciting.) So, if you are curious about designing a quilt with help from AI, here is how we did it.

This all started when we were talking about potentially vending at QuiltCon. Wouldn’t it be cool if we had a pattern in the magazine and a quilt hanging in the show, and then we sold kits at our booth? With the emphasis on originality at QuiltCon, there are rarely (never?) kits and patterns available for the exhibited quilts. *I may be mistaken with this point – it is entirely possible that I just haven’t noticed this before.

Step one was brainstorming some design ideas. We started chatting about what we liked in modern quilting, potential trends, and what we think might be fun. Ivete has played with Artificial Intelligence to generate quilt ideas before, which have been fun to look at, but didn’t take us anywhere. AI doesn’t have a real firm grasp on quilting techniques yet, so some of the images are cool, but don’t look like they would be much fun to make. This time we decided to ask for posters rather than quilts. We only needed a graphic starting point. Ivete managed the rest of the search terms, which is the hardest part of using AI. Telling it what you want, specifically, with as few words as possible.

This went on for a while, maybe an hour? The computer would give us 3-5 images, we would like one, ask for more like that, but a little different. It was fun for like 1/2 an hour. This is the final image that Andrea liked. (I had one for me, too, but I haven’t done anything with it yet.)

This is the finished version, which Andrea decided to call Quota.

I think it is so cool to see what elements she kept, and what she added. I loved it immediately upon seeing it. Andrea submitted it and it was accepted. She then had to make it and create the pattern, on top of closing down the retail shop, moving all of the inventory, and setting up a new space to run the online shop out of. Andrea is a champion.

The next step for me was to create the sample of the secondary colorway. We decided to create another colorway to make it easier for folks to see how it would look with other fabrics. While I feel like I can pretty easily see what a quilt with look like with other fabrics, I know that it is a skill I have developed over a long quilting career.

When I say I was creating the sample, I mean sewing the sample. Andrea chose the colors, with the assignment of “more muted” colors. This is the sketch she sent, and the fabric pull. To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled with it at first. However, once the fabrics arrived I liked it more. And, as I started putting them on my wall, I fell in love with them.

I was told to keep the quilting simple, but I failed that part of the assignment. I started doing just straight lines, then I got a little fancy, then I added more lines, then I did some hand quilting. You know how it goes. It was fun, so I kept going. Actually, there should be some more quilting around the circles, but I didn’t have a good marking tool. So, my partially quilted version is what is on display.

Are you tempted to make your own version of Quota? We are running a quilt along starting on May 1. (This one isn’t just me, so it is actually going to happen this time.) There are giveaways planned, live Q&A sessions, and weekly on-demand content guiding you through the pattern. Head over to Gotham Quilts for more info and to sign up. The quilt along is free, although you will need a copy of the pattern. You can get the magazine from us, or you can order a pdf version from Quilting Daily, the publisher.

The finished quilt is 42″ x 48″. Mom asked me what it would look like if we put 4 of them together. I think this is pretty amazing. They are all flipped around the center point, to make it symmetrical. Then I turned the circles around a bit. I have to admit – I’m super tempted to do this now. This one is 84″ x 96″.

If you are tempted, we have a sew along for Quota all ready to kick off on May 1. We’ve got all the details here. Come stitch with us! We’ve already got dozens of participants registered. It’s going to be so much fun.

Ok. Back to my original topic. What do you think about designing a quilt using AI? Have you tried using AI for design inspiration? I think this may become a regular part of our process. It was fun and pretty successful.