Originally Posted by Bree123

It depends on whether the design was traditional or not (i.e., whether it holds a design patent). If it is a patented design, the clearly defined legal rule is that ""if, in the eye of an ordinary observer, giving such attention as a purchaser usually gives, two designs are substantially the same, the resemblance is such as to deceive such an observer, inducing him to purchase one supposing it to be the other."

When you flip through patent applications, you usually don't see colors included in the patent. Colors are chosen by marketing people, so simply changing the color typically isn't enough to avoid patent infringement. Changing one block also does not avoid infringement (there have actually been cases for that). If the quilt you make is substantially the same as the patented quilt, it can be an issue.

As Tartan says, if the design is public domain & all that's unique about the book are the "how-to" instructions, go for it! I know I've wasted money before buying something that was supposed to help me make a Sunbonnet Sue quilt. The instructions were basically non-existent & I could do better just looking at photos of Sunbonnet Sue online & making up my own patterns.

If you are just making it for your own home, you need to decide your own comfort level. If you are making the quilt to sell, I would be very careful with that. Yes, odds are the designer would never know & wouldn't come after you, but there certainly have been times where professional quilt makers have been threatened with lawsuits &, unfortunately, that seems to be becoming more & more common.

McCall's recently sent me an email in response to a question stating that even if my client buys their own copy of a quilt pattern, I can't turn around & sew that quilt for them for profit. They claimed it was an infringement on their patent. I have no idea whether or not that's true (I'm not about to pay a patent attorney to investigate). I figure there are plenty of other beautiful pattern makers out there that are happy to sell me patterns so I can sew a small number of quilts for my customers. I must say that part of me is jealous of the quilters half a century ago that happily shared designs with others. I can understand needing to make a profit, but some of these rules (I have a fabric with carrots on it that says "for home use only") are getting to be ridiculous.