According to this site, a technique cannot be copyright.
"Copyright does not protect ideas, concepts and schemes. Rather, it protects the manner in which the idea or information is expressed". Copyright does not protect techniques. thus, while you may verbally share with your friends what you did in a workshop(a), to photocopy the notes for them(b) is infringement of copyright....
http://www.quilt.com/FAQS/CopyrightFAQ.html#An1
So if someone has a TECHNIQUE for using jelly rolls to make a public domain block like an Ohio Star, that technique is not copyright. What is copyright is the book or other publication itself.