Onebyone

If I need the pattern to learn a new construction method or learn a new technique then I buy it. If the units are what I know I can do then I don't buy the pattern. I don't feel guilty at all. I tend to stick to a few pattern designers for buying patterns, Margot Languedoc Designs from The Pattern Basket, any paper piece pattern I like, and I buy Block magazine for Missouri Star patterns.

GingerK

Petthefabric, great minds think alike!! I also saw that picture and really liked the pattern. I forwarded it to a friend and she came back with the block design. I'm not as far along as you, and mine will be totally scrappy, including multiple different shades of white and cream for the back ground. I'm having a lot of fun, playing with my 2.5 inch strips!

bkay

Yes, and the fabric requirements. Unless it's a scrappy quilt, the amount of fabric really helps.

bkay

Gannyrosie

Beautiful quilt petthefabric. As long as you're not selling, you're good. Love how the placement of colors brings out the design

pennyhal2

A lot of the quilts I see are just color variation of some well known blocks and stitched or combined blocks. I don't think a log cabin block could be patented even if has a unusual distribution of colors or fabrics. All of the blocks that I see are just very old designs or just using different colors.. Could twisting and turning or using different colors in a block be patented? Who would own the Log Cabin design? I can see where printed directions that come with some patterns could be patented because I'm sure Grandmother did not get a patent for the directions for the log cabin.

If something is patented, you can go online at the to see if it actually has a patent on it. Just go to the Smithsonian's website and look the patent up. If it's not there, it doesn't have a patent. If the patent number is not on the printed directions, it probably is not patented.

This is a sticky area. I can see where some people misuse other people's work. But, you'd have to spend a lot of money to challenge the patent and spend lot of money just to get a patent in the first place. As a group, I know we don't go around making quilt copies to distribute to our friends. But, I don't think nowadays that people are as ethical as I'd wish. We do our best to support the quilting community, but there are some bad guys out there.

Peckish

Lots of confusion here between "patent" and "copyright".

Regarding quilting - you cannot copy and distribute someone else's written directions for a quilt pattern without their permission.

You CAN look at a picture of a quilt and figure out how to make it yourself. In fact, maybe you'll come up with a better method! 😁

petthefabric

As an artist, I try to be unique. And respect other artist work. The world has changed so much and so fast that tracking originality is next to impossible. It’s easier to sleep at night if I’m satisfied with my decisions.

Unscrupulous companies mass selling repos of quilts pictured on QB has been reported on QB. It happens.

For me, no money will pass my way for this quilt. And it will be donated to charity.

My reward is enjoying the process. So future projects will include more creativity.

dunster

Peckish is right. Quilts and quilt patterns cannot be patented. Quilt patterns are copyrighted automatically when they are written. The patent does not have to be registered for it to be effective.

Copyright just means you can't copy the pattern (the words and pictures) without the writer's permission. This applies even to patterns that are distributed for free, and also to patterns that are no longer available for sale.

A quilt design would have to be very unique for it to be copyrighted. The only example I can think of that might be eligible would be applique. So figuring out how to make something, by looking at a picture of a quilt, and then making it, is not a violation of copyright, no matter how much it looks like the original.

Selling a quilt has nothing to do with copyright. You can make as many quilts as you want from a pattern, and you can do whatever you want with those quilts. (I think the one exception would be mass marketing the quilts.) If you no longer want your pattern, you can give it away, or you can sell it. The only thing you cannot do is make copies of the pattern, whether to keep, to give away or to sell.

petthefabric

There have been law suits over using an image/expansion of international quilt artist in carpeting of 5 star hotel.

There’s other lawsuits over selling quilts made from patterns.

It’s not worth trying to defend yourself in court.

everyone walks a unique path. What works for me, might not work for you. Actually, that’s very good. We should not be all alike. My self image is; very creative. Why would I copy anyone? The best one to me is learning. Since I’ve had a prick to my conscience, it’s important to me and I’m feeling compromised. Can’t undo but can learn.

what I’ve learned; copying didn’t encourage my creative soul.

Peckish

Yes, and this is a completely different issue than what we were originally discussing. This is using an artist's work without permission and compensation.

None that have been successful. The rulings have been once you make a quilt, it is yours to do what you want with it, with the exception of any licensed graphics, such as Disney characters or NFL logos. Even for those, you can make a quilt with a Buffalo Bill on it, you just can't sell it without entering a contract and paying exorbitant licensing fees first. It's the written directions and photographs of the process that are copyrighted, NOT the quilt itself. In other words, the actual work product of the original creator. My making of a quilt from a pattern is NOT the original designer's "work product", it is MINE. I could even write up my own directions for the same quilt and sell them as a pattern, as long as I didn't use any of the other designer's photos or copy/paste her directions. This is why you see so many patterns for sale for what is essentially the same quilt, even if they do change the name of the quilt.

I once saw a quilt on a blog. The blog owner published a quilt pattern with pictures of the quilt, along with the statement that you were not allowed to reverse-engineeer her quilt and make your own, you HAD to buy her pattern. The funny thing is, that particular quilt had already been published a few years before, and there were even Accuquilt dies on the market to make it. So she was essentially copying THEM. I doubt she knew anything about it, so does that make her guilty of copying them? What's wrong with the fact that sometimes people come up with the same ideas?

So I guess you've never made a log cabin, or an Ohio star, or a Drunkard's Path? If so, you'd be "copying" a LOT of people.

There are lots of problems with definitions and meanings here. The only time I think a person "copies" someone else is if they make the exact same quilt, with the exact same fabrics and colors, in the exact same setting. That very rarely happens, and if it does, so what? I have a friend who has a visual anomaly, something in her brain that has difficulties with processing color. She prefers to, as you would say, "copy" quilts. I don't think she shouldn't be made to feel bad or less creative because she does that.