10 yards for $1 is a GREAT deal!
I would serge off a piece and run it through the washer and dryer with the brights/lights 10-12 times and see what happens to it. Some chintzes are very sound fabric and will look beautiful (and FEEL beautiful on the back of a quilt) with all that laundering.
Other chintzes will show you how they spawned the word, "chintzy," - they are poor fabrics with poor printing, heavily glazed. When the glaze washes off, it takes some or most of the color with it and you are left with a threadbare-looking, lifeless bit of little more than gauze.
But even a really poor fabric would be a great foundation for strip-quilting or crazy quilting. Just starch the heck out of it and let it almost dry and press it.
