dunster summed it up pretty nicely. I'm not a lawyer, but that pretty much fits my understanding of copyright laws.
With pictures, the person who takes the picture owns the copyright for the picture. It doesn't even matter who made the quilt. More important is who took the picture, not what's displayed on it (aside from some specific cases).
So as long as you believe no sane judge (or a jury of peers) would agree that the primary purpose of that particular picture is to distribute the pattern (so that the others can trace it, etc.), I don't think there is going to be a problem.
In other words, if you take a picture of a printout of some pattern and distribute such picture, that would probably be a violation of the law. Since it would be obvious that that the picture's primary purpose is to distribute the pattern.
But if you take a picture of a quit and distribute the picture with the intent to show your work then no laws are broken.