As a younger quilter, some of the posts in this thread are making me FURIOUS. Why must you blame everything on the "younger generation?" I have news for you, there are people like that of all ages. It isn't right or fair to blame anything like that type of callousness on age.
I never ever gift a quilt without the input of the recipient unless it is a baby quilt. I would also never ever put a quilt into a garage sale. If it wasn't my taste, I would make sure it went to a family member who would use and appreciate it. I'm the first quilter in the family since my great-grandmother, although my grandmothers both sewed other things. The older members of the family assumed that we younger people would never want any of granny's sewing things, including her treadle machine and scrap bag, and got rid of them. Thankfully one of the aunts took her button box, so I have that now as none of her children or grandchildren sew. I went through boxes of my grandmother's things a few winters ago, and was astounded to find several plastic wrapped bundles in a cardboard box in a basement storage closet - unbeknownst to me, my great grandmother's quilts had been sitting in our basement since the 1980's!
Our quilt guild president recently brought a quilt to show us that she found when an elderly neigbor moved to assisted living. This woman's children are old enough to be my parents, and they dumped the quilt into the driveway for someone to take, cedar chest and all.
And yes, I have had some of my quilts not be treasured like they should be - those people don't get them again. My best friend is so upset because the quilt that I made for her sister's baby isn't treasured by the sister, but she knows that the daughter will want her baby quilt. It's in the storage unit where J can't get at it, and she is heartbroken that she can't get to the quilt and save it for Lillie. So I'm making J a quilt of her own, and she is going to get me the info from the storage space. I'm going to see if I can talk to the people when they clean out the space for nonpayment to sell everything, and possibly buy back the quilt. If I can't, i'm hoping it goes to someone who will love and appreciate it.
So please, please please put the blame where it is due on the people that do these things and do not paint my generation and younger as a bunch of inconsiderate people who are not worthy of being gifted quilts or anything nice because we don't know/care enough to take care of them. It simply isn't true.