I've bought quilt tops at estate sales to finish. (Darn it, I haven't found any Grandma's flower gardens.) You have to be careful with how much time you spend "fixing" the flaws or redesigning them. Most were cut with scissors, so they are not necessarily cut consistently. If you end up cutting it apart or ripping out seams, you may end up putting more time into it than you anticipate.
I'm working on one right now that I thought would go quickly. I needed add just one more row of squares to make it come out with a correct ratio and attach those two pieces. Easy, huh? Well, no not exactly. I had to rip out all cross seams in extra pieces to add them. Since I'd gone that far, I might as well rip a cross row in the center and reverse it, as it had too much red in that area and not enough blue. Except they didn't really fit, so I added a row there. Now I'm trying to square it up for borders and it's not cooperating. I've had to rip out an area and add to the strip as it was too short. I'm going to have to get out a long table today to square it up, as it's still not cooperating.
Waiting in the wings, I have a gorgeous hand stitched Dresden plate top that was was 1/2 done with all the plates completed. Not only was the sashing not a consistent width or length, but the quilter had left a hole where the cornerstones went. So I ripped out all the sashing and will replace it.
I'm just saying it's not as easy as you would think to finish someone else's work. Or else, you have to have more discipline than I have and just take it like it is. I would still do it, but next time, I won't expect it to be easy.
bkay
The one I'm trying to square up and a sample of the multicolored Dresden plates.