But there isn't always a will to work with something. If you aren't enjoying working with it, move it along. There's plenty of fish in the sea, or fabric in the stash...

You may feel differently if you wash it like Geri B suggested or just wash it in hot water with a vinegar or oxyclean soak.

Don't you wish this piece could speak to you to let you know it's origin? Someone cared enough to do hexies and stitch this by hand, no doubt from what fabrics they had at the time. Working with this, you might decide you really love it just as the person who made it did??

I discovered an old quilt that had withstood years of abuse/misuse, even going through a complete roof tear-off unprotected in my attic. It was dirty, smelly and "old". Found an inscription embroidered on it that it was a wedding gift to my grandmother 125 years ago! I couldn't toss it even though it showed it's age, tears from old springs, etc and it wasn't clean enough to store with other quilts. Soooo, I chanced it. Archivists recommend bath tub laundry but here's what I did. Filled my washer with water and used powdered Arm and Hammer detergent (low sudser). Put the quilt in and smushed it down into the water and then let it sit, pressed it down several times during that time of soaking. Then I let it spin out without agitating. Rinsed the same way. Put a sheet on the grass outside and spread the quilt on top to dry. It didn't get totally dry outside that day but was able to finish it by laying it out in the house. It came out beautifully, soft and in good condition. I love it! It's not perfect but quilts of the day were not and this one has been rescued. I did put muslin on the back of some of the torn places, not for beauty but to reinforce those edges that it wouldn't tear any farther. I did a few quilting stitches trying to copy the work of the original--wow, those were little stitches by accomplished quilters who were a lot better quilters than I!

TRASH IT! Life is too short to try and reclaim someone else's failures. If it's ugly, that's probably why the maker never finished it. Now it's dirty and nasty too... not worth your time.

You shouldn't ever wash a top because of the raveling. Those seam allowances are only 1/4" to begin with, and after the raveling that will happen in a wash, there may be nothing left of them.

Set it free, it's not your monkey. Especially if it isn't that pretty. Either the free table at Guild or the trash. Put on the free table only if it has some redeeming properties.

This may be the best idea - dogs won't care about the colors & fabrics. I didn't mention cats as we know how pickey they are.

That's what I did with a bunch of ugly 12 inch blocks I won, made them into 36 inch squares backed with fabric I didn't like. The animal shelter loved them.

I like the animal shelter idea. Use the quilt for front and back, that way you use it up faster. The dogs don't care what it looks like.

I can take it off your hands.

I make lots of charity quilts and barely have time for the things I want to sew for myself. My time is very precious as I imagine yours is also. I say trash it and get on with something you are going to enjoy. It's not like something someone you know or love made it and you want to make the best of it for them too.

Sometimes we are given various quilted/knitted/crocheted items that were probably given to us because the recipient didn't know what to do with them. Several years a dear friend sent me a bunch of somewhat larger hexies, but they were made from all knit fabrics. I appreciated that she thought I might like them, and having known her wonderful MIL I would have liked to do something with them, but I just couldn't find myself putting together a bunch of knit hexies, so I did get rid of them. I felt bad, however, a few years after that this friend was building a large log cabin house, literally on a hilltop in TN, yup. She asked me to make her a log cabin quilt for her new home. I had just seen on the cover of a quilting magazine a log cabin quilt, I think made by a woman in Canada, it had a medallion style block in the center of the quilt with a log cabin with pieced, pointy mountains in the background. I wasn't happy with the log cabin, asked a fellow quilter who gave me some good advice, and I ripped it all out; but managed to save the log cabin, then made log cabin and maple leaf blocks in a barn raising setting. This was possibly the best quilt I ever made, and it still hangs next to her rock fireplace - she tells everyone who enters the house that it was a gift by her best friend. So, I managed to make up for tossing those hexies.