Originally Posted by dunster

Probably not. Few quilt designs are protected by copyright, because they are not original.

Copyrighting something is not expensive. It is not a lengthy process. As soon as you produce something, it is protected. There is a small charge to register your copyright, but registration is not required. This article explains - https://m.wikihow.com/Copyright-Material-(US)

A lot of the confusion about copyright and quilt patterns stems from the fact that people assume that it is the quilt design that the author claims is copyrighted. In reality, it is almost always the quilt pattern itself - the words and pictures that the author wrote to describe how to make the quilt - that is under copyright protection.