So NJ Quilter, one thing that you missed is that this manufacturer proposes to use an image of my original work and will screen print it onto tshirts and canvases. So I purchased a finite number of fat quarters which were used in my design, but the potential replications of the original are infinite.
In my opinion, since the component pieces of my crazy quilted squirrels are all very small (2.5 inches or less) and the image being acquired by the manufacturer is only of value to them as a complete entity -- squirrel mosaic on busy background-- not large chunks of brand name fabric being reprinted without permission -- in this case, I think I have legal and ethical rights to use my creation in whatever format I choose. However, I think it would be unethical to choose say 4 fat quarter I liked and stitch them together and then treat it in the same way. And I admit that there is a lot of gray area between the two extremes of the examples I've given.
Since I have no intention of going into business in any format, it's simply musing on my part. But I do think it's interesting in this age of so much pervasive sharing of images freely online. If you actually read the small print of those long site permissions when you join a site, such as this one, you essentially give up rights to the photos you post on that site. Granted, most of the time, the images will not be put to any further uses.