I'm sure she wasn't intending to be the quilt police - she was trying to keep people from infringing on someone else's rights to intellectual property. There's so much information and dis-information about what constitutes copyright infringement out there, it's no wonder people are confused.
But, no you can't copyright a technique.
There's a lot of instruction on the web about constructing quilts of the type that Ricky Tims calls "Convergence."
His book is really a good one for making everything clear and easier to follow, though.
