1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a quilt designing method, and an apparatus for designing a quilt, that is applicable to a piecing method, known as a paper piecing, wherein patches of arbitrary size are stitched on thin paper on which a quilt design is drawn.
2. Description of the Related Art
To make a quilt, first, a quilt design is made based on photographs or patterns. Next, patches, called pieces, which are suitable for forming a quilt design, are pieced together one by one using a sewing machine.
Recently, a piecing method, known as paper piecing (also known as a paper foundation piecing), has become widespread. In accordance with this method, a quilt design is printed on thin paper, and arbitrary sized fabrics are stitched on the thin paper using the sewing machine according to a piecing order. According to this method, once the thin paper, which operates a foundation on which a quilt design with piecing order is printed, is prepared, it is not necessary to mark on a fabric or to cut the fabric to a suitable size for the foundation. Therefore, a desirable quilt can be made extremely easily, and can be beautifully made even though the pieces are small, using the method described above.
However, paper piecing is not applicable to all quilt designs, because the method repeats stitching on only one side of a piece on a foundation with straight stitches using a sewing machine. Therefore, a quilt design that is not applicable to paper piecing needs to be modified so as to become applicable to paper piecing.
For example, a quilt design xe2x80x9cFishxe2x80x9d, which is a modification of fish, shown in FIG. 21, and a quilt design xe2x80x9cFlowerxe2x80x9d, which is a modification of flower, shown in FIG. 22A, are determined as to whether they are applicable to paper piecing. The quilt design xe2x80x9cFishxe2x80x9d can be made by piecing pieces together, following a piecing order given to pieces printed on a foundation, as shown in FIG. 21, so that it is applicable to paper piecing. On the other hand, in the quilt design xe2x80x9cFlowerxe2x80x9d, a portion of which is a stem, cannot be stitched by the paper piecing that is the method for piecing pieces one by one using a sewing machine, so that it is not applicable to paper piecing. Therefore, the stem portion of the quilt design xe2x80x9cFlowerxe2x80x9d needs to be modified. By changing the shape of the piece to a shape shown in FIGS. 22B or 22C, the pieces of the quilt design xe2x80x9cFlowerxe2x80x9d becomes possible to be pieced together, following the piecing order given to the pieces printed on a foundation.
As described above, only the person who has the requisite skill and determination can design quilts by determining whether the quilt design is applicable to paper piecing, and if not, determining how the quilt design should be modified so as to be applicable to paper piecing. At present, experienced designers having the requisite skill can design the quilts for paper piecing. Novice quilters make quilts using the existing quilt designs.
Similar to other fields, in the quilt field, quilters who want to make quilts based on one""s own quilt designs have increased in number. However, as described above, everyone cannot design quilts because a certain amount of skill for designing quilts is required. Therefore, it is difficult for the quilters to design their own quilts.
Further, even a person who has experience in designing quilts finds it difficult to determine whether a complicated quilt design is applicable to paper piecing. Particularly, it is difficult to modify the quilt design so as to become applicable to paper piecing, without departing from the original quilt design, due to mistakes, such as oversight.
It is an object of the invention to provide a quilt designing method and an apparatus for easily designing a quilt that is applicable to paper piecing for not only skilled designers, but also novice quilters who have no experience in designing quilts.
In order to achieve the above and other objects, a quilt designing method comprises the steps of determining whether a quilt design is applicable to a predetermined piecing method for making a quilt based on quilt design data showing the quilt design that includes a plurality of pieces, and modifying the quilt design so that the quilt design becomes applicable to the predetermined piecing method when the quilt design is determined as not being applicable to the predetermined piecing method in the determining step.
According to the quilt designing method described above, it is automatically determined whether the quilt design is applicable to the predetermined piecing method. A quilt design that is not applicable to the predetermined piecing method is automatically modified so as to be applicable to the predetermined piecing method. Therefore, the quilt design that is applicable to the predetermined piecing method can be obtained without having special knowledge of quiltmaking.
In another aspect of the invention, the step of determining the quilt design can including determining whether all pieces of the quilt design are eventually separated from the quilt design by separating the pieces one after another by one straight demarcation line. Therefore, it can be efficiently and assuredly determined whether the quilt design is applicable to the predetermined piecing method.
In another aspect of the invention, the step of determining the quilt design can include determining whether the quilt design is applicable to the predetermined piecing method when the quilt design is divided into two blocks, that each include a plurality of the pieces, by one straight demarcation line, even when the quilt design cannot be separated into pieces by one straight demarcation line. Therefore, the number of modifications of the quilt design can be minimized.
In another aspect of the invention, the step of determining the quilt design can include analyzing a property of demarcation line separating adjacent pieces based on the quilt design data. Therefore, a simulation, such that each piece is separated from the quilt design one after another by one straight demarcation line, can be efficiently performed.
According to another aspect of the invention, the step of modifying the quilt design can include selecting demarcation lines that do not intersect other demarcation lines even when the demarcation lines are extended to a periphery, and that divides the quilt design into two blocks, that includes a plurality of the pieces, and the step of modifying the quilt design can extend the demarcation lines, which is arbitrarily selected by the step of selecting the demarcation line, and can modify the quilt design by deleting all demarcation lines that exist in one of the blocks divided by the extended demarcation line. Therefore, the quilt design can be certainly and efficiently modified so as to be applicable to the predetermined piecing method.
According to another aspect of the invention, the step of selecting the demarcation lines can include selecting demarcation lines that divide the quilt design so that a number of the demarcation lines, which exist in one of blocks divided by the demarcation line and which are to be deleted by the step of modifying the quilt design, is a predetermined number or less. Therefore, a modification, that makes the quilt design depart from the original quilt design, can be efficiently prevented.
In another aspect of the invention, the step of selecting the demarcation line can include selecting a demarcation line that divides the quilt design, so that the quilt design cannot become unseparable again, and predicting a separating situation after the division. Therefore, the quilt design can be efficiently modified without repeating the modification.
In another aspect of the invention, the step of modifying the quilt design can include selecting, with a demarcation line selector, demarcation lines that do not intersect other demarcation lines, even when the demarcation lines are extended to a periphery, and dividing the quilt design into two blocks that include a plurality of the pieces, and the step of modifying the quilt design can include modifying the quilt design by extending the demarcation lines, which are arbitrarily selected by the step of selecting the demarcation line, to the periphery. Therefore, the number of modifications of the quilt design can be minimized, so that the quilt design can be modified to a quilt design that is similar to the original.
In another aspect of the invention, in the method described above, the step of selecting the demarcation line can include selecting a demarcation line that divides the quilt design, so that the quilt design cannot become unseparable again, and predicting a separating situation after the division. Therefore, the quilt design can be efficiently modified without repeating the modification. Therefore, the quilt design can be efficiently modified without repeating the modification.