Top Post of 2025

Right off, Happy New Year to everyone!👹

I am a big fan of Google Analytics. It revealed this blog's top post for 2025 ai-impacting-quilt-design was from March 2024. There, I entered a prompt in an AI generator of "an abstract quilt depicting food realistic" from the 2024 California State Fair description of "Almost Edible" in the Crafts Special Contests category. My interpretation of a cupcake wasn't selected. Beading and all, I still love it. 💗

I didn't enter the special crafts competition in 2025 because the prompt was "Action Sports."

I will definitely run that prompt again when the Fair posts its 2026 prompt for that category. One reason I enter that category is hoping for less competition. From the time of the posting of the prompt to fair submission is 3 months or less. 

Art quilts are another category I have entered with modest success as honorable mentions. I know enough not to compete against fantastical quilters, these were entered in the fiber art category. Another of my popular posts this year is the-encounter-abstract-in-fabric, an art quilt from 2018. 

If I decide to complete another art quilt, 1950s abstract painting by Ney might be my inspiration. 

There is also the Amador County Fair scheduled in the months to come. A special crafts prompt might be posted for that event. I will keep you posted. 

AI Impacting Quilt Design?

I just received notice of our state fair's upcoming quilt competition. Among the categories, there is a unique one - Crafts Special Contests. The theme is Almost Edible, and described as follows: 

Concept: Food is a conversation starter across the world despite ethnicity, language, religion, or income class. Our common enjoyment of food brings families, cultures, and communities together for celebrations, traditions, and for simple pure enjoyment as Connoisseurs of Cuisine - or affectionately termed “Foodies.” Consider what your favorite food is and share with us your version of its appearance. It should elicit hunger cravings, evoke sentimental memories, and be so realistic that it is “Almost Edible”. However, beware it’s only art that is consumed by the eyes of onlookers for this competition!

The publication Quilt Folk posed the question Could AI Impact Quilt Design? quiltfolk.com As in my blog title, I can answer, "I don't know." At first I thought, "yes," but then the images below were AI generated. 

When I pondered this foodie prompt, the only thing that came to mind was a quilt in the shape of a pizza with pepperoni slices. I wanted to see what AI created with the following prompt:

An abstract quilt depicting food realistic

Not quite what I expected, they look obscene. Is that meant to be a joke? 

I threw in abstract because my last two competition quilts have been fabric interpretations of 1960s abstract paintings. I received honorable mention on each of them. I want this version to be abstract, just because. I am still leaning towards a Quilt Pizza.