I have thrown a couple of quilts away. The first was a paper pieced quilt that looked great until I started sewing the rows together, then it looked awful. I didn't have enough contrast, and it wasn't worth saving.
The second one was a redwork quilt (red and white) that was really a lot of work. It had over 300 half square triangles and a lot of embroidered squares. I finished it up by putting red rick rack all around the outer edge prior to binding. I really liked the way it looked. I washed it to get it ready to send my sister. The whole thing came out pink and red. It was awful. Someone told me about a product that would remove the excess die. I can't remember the name but I had to wash it again in the hottest water available. It did remove most of the excess die. In fact, it worked so good I decided to wash it in that stuff again. I figured one more wash would get out all of the pink. If I had read the directions properly I would have realized that you can only wash it once with this stuff. The whole thing came out sort of a brown/light tan. I immediately threw it away. Some of my friends were upset with me. They said I should have given it to some charity. It was way too ugly to give to anybody. I then proceeded to make another one, just like it, for my sister. This time I also pre washed the rick rack, and it turned out fine. Thank goodness!