When I was a teen and well into my adulthood, Dad and I were in the habit of dumpster diving. No quilts, but amoung the things that we got were $3000 worth of lace and antiques we sold for our church, a complete and functioning very early Lionel train set, an entire set of good quality kitchen cabinets which became my first sewing room, a dumpster load of very good children's clothing, books, toys, etc. As a side to his previous job in charge of maintenance and A/C, DH was asked to remove and dump things left in an upscale apartment complex. This included TWO fine cedar chests, an entire truckload of fancy children's clothing from a fancy boutique, complete with the original price tags (we presume they were the previous year's models). Each of these items was found a good home. I have long since stopped being surprised by what people throw out.