Several of my other Tuesday group members do a lot of reconstruction/salvaging work. I'll do quite a bit myself in terms of finishing UFOs I find in thrift stores or that are given to me, but some of the things some of the ladies have done are remarkable. I admit upfront that I avoid doing any sorts of repairs and flatly turn down any restoration work as "I'm not the right person" and that I let my own quilts face the same effects of time and mileage as myself.
My general feeling is that there are often very good reasons on why stuff doesn't get finished! But because I didn't put in the initial effort or expense, maybe I'm willing to do some fixes, or maybe I see solutions the other person didn't. I'm just saying you do find quite a few unfinished Grandmother Flower Garden projects/hexes out there
Some of the things I've seen finished have been amazing, it's incredible seeing some quilters at work! One project one of the ladies started looking like a horrible stained/badly pieced rag -- but it was made with civil war/pre-1900 fabric which actually was in pretty good shape even if the stars were rough and the background needed replacing. There was also some provenance/story that went with it, nothing major but it was known where it came from and who were its people.
Another one of our ladies does a lot of hand work and embroidery blocks/embellishments. She just would rather take some old blocks that need some love and hand quilt them rather than start from fresh cloth/a fresh project. Like me, she does a lot of thrift store shopping and has some especially wonderful vintage solid yardages. When I collected vintage fabric it was mostly more for the conservationist/recreationist market, again -- it amazes me all the really cool stuff different people are doing out there.