Let's Quilt in Midjourney

Earlier in September my word of the day was “quilt”. While I was creating the image I became intrigued to see if using the name of well known quilters would change the aesthetic of quilted images.

Many generative artists use the names of artists to generate images with different styles. Quilters are artists using a different medium. Sort of like generative art uses AI to power their images.

It’s fall and I’m Canadian so I decided to use the Canada Goose in flight as a topic of the images. Here is the base prompt:

quilted zendoodle, Canada geese in flight quilt --s 300 --seed 835203269 --ar 3:4

And the image:

The only thing that will change on each of the images I’m going to share will be adding:

in the style of (insert quilter name)

I started out with a list of about 100 quilters that I created images for using the above prompt. As you know each prompt provides four choices. To come as close as possible on the comparisons I focused on the image in the style of the base image I’ve shown above.

Many of the sets of images I produced didn’t create the geese flying. Those were eliminated immediately. Of the remaining ones I choose the one I liked best from similar style images and looked for a different twist on the image.

I think I found a pretty interesting selection of quilted images. The last one is a Midjourney blooper.

Jennifer of The Inquiring Quilter

Jennier Fulton is the author of the “Idiot’s Guides to Quilting”. Her work is a mix of old and new. You can visit her website: The Inquiring Quilter

Leila of Sewn by Leila

Leila Gardunia is the coauthor of the book “You Can Quilt”. Her quilting style freshens up the traditional quilt block. You can visit her at: American Quilter’s Society

Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts

Alyce Blyth is an Australian known for her modern quilting patterns and designs. She often focuses on scrap-friendly designs to use up fabric scraps. You can visit her website at: Blossom Heart Quilts

Pauline from Funky Friends Factory

Pauline McArthur is an Australian is best known for creating soft toy sewing patterns rather than traditional quilting. You can visit her site at: Funky Friends Factory

Emily of Aunt Em’s Quilts

Emily is best known for her passion for creating modern scrappy quilts. Her designs often use a mix of traditional and modern techniques giving them a unique look. You can visit her site at: Aunt Ems Quilts

Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs

Cheryl Brickey’s quilting style reflects a modern approach to quilting, incorporating traditional elements with a contemporary twist. You can visit her site at: Meadow Mist Designs

Julie and Brittany of Stitches of Love

Julie and Brittany Love are a mother-daughter due dedicated to teaching the craft of quilting to all levels of expertise. You can visit their website at: Stitches of Love

Annie E. Pettway (1904-1972)

Annie Pettway started quilting as a necessity to keep her family warm. She was best known for her unique and artistic quilting styles that were exhibited in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and is in a collection at the Philedelphia Museum of Art.

Essie Bendolph Pettway

Essie took up quilting as a child and made her first quilt when she was twelve. Her style is known for bold patterns and inventive color combinations.

Alex Anderson

Alex is the author of a resource guide called “All Things Quilting With Alex Anderson”. Her quilting style reflects a blend of traditional and modern quilting. You can visit her site at: Alex Anderson Quilts

Anna Marie Horner

Anna grew up steeped in the artistic work of her father and her mother’s handiwork, hand-loomed blankets from her Greek grandmother an hand-knits from her American grandmother. Her quilting styles is a blend of traditional and modern influences with an emphasis on artistry and craftsmanship. You can visit her site at: Anna Marie

Annie Bendolph (1900 - 1981)

Annie was known for her mastery of geometric forms in her quilts, often using mosaic of triangles, manipulating size, shape and direction of the triangles. Her early quilts were made from any materials she could reclaim while later quilts were made from scraps acquired from factories which lent themselves to more contemporary designs.

Mary Lee Bendolph

Mary Lee’s quilts are characterized by transformation of old cloth scraps into aesthetic marvels. She’d tear worn and discarded clothing into simple strips and blocks before assembling them into highly refined geometric abstractions. She had a balance between traditional and innovation with a unique blend of geometric and abstract work.

Kaffe Fassett

Kaffee is known globally for his vibrant and colorful work in various mediums including quilting. He uses an unique approach to color and design characterized by bold use of color, intricate patterns and a blend of traditional and contemporary techniques. You can visit his website at: Kaffe Fassett Studio

Wini McQueen

Winni’s quilts often address significant issues related to race, class, society and women. She uses hand-dyed materials to create narrative quilts and sometimes incorporates image transfers photocopy transfers. She refers to her creations as “urban kente”.

Miriam Nathan-Roberts (1942 - 2018)

Miriam specialized in Studio Art Quilting with her work revolving primarily around creating abstract “illusions of three dimensions on flat or semi-flat surfaces”. Her unique approach resulted in visually captivating pieces.

Sue Reno

Sue’s work is an award winning fiber artist whose work is influenced by the environment around often including images from nature in her work. She also works with architectural themes. You can visit her website at: Sue Reno

Midjourney Blooper

This image was different and was in the group to use. Then I noticed the irregularities. It’s either one goose with two heads, one wing, one leg. Or two geese and one of them is without wings and legs. With enough patience I might have been able to fix it into one complete goose but decided just to do a bonus blooper.

Blooper image notwithstanding, I’m not sure that using the quilter’s names for the styles incorporated their individual style but they sure gave me a variety of variations on the original image.

As always, have fun when playing with Midjourney and don’t be afraid to try different approaches to see what happens.