I have previously mentioned the Resynthesizer plugin for gimp. and its ability to remove areas of an image and re-synthesize the patch.

bootchk recently posted a fix to the Smart remove selection script that used the resynth plugin (but was broken) over at the gimp plugin registry.

I have figured out a nice way of eliminating that repeated texture look with this plugin.

Starting with a very obviously tiled pattern (Electric blue in the gimp default patterns):
t1.jpg

Create a new layer and fill it with solid noise. Pick a size around the same as the pattern tiling. Then threshold the noise:
noise.jpg

Select the white area, then make the pattern the active layer, and run the Filters>Enhance>Heal Selection on it. Select the "radius to take selection from" at about the same size as the original pattern width.

Invert the selection, and rerun the filter (ctrl-f).

Invert the selection one more time and run it a third time:
t2.jpg

Here is another sample starting with a clover pattern:
t3.jpg

and after this process:
t4.jpg

-Rob A>