Originally Posted by Cyn
What happens if you just cut them off close to the quilt? I did this once and it seems fine but it has never been washed. Will it all come apart?
It might be okay. A lot depends on the size of the quilting stitches, the fiber content of the batting and fabric, stress during washing & drying, etc. I would wash it with the last amount of stress possible, which means using a front-loading washer or using a top-loader with manual agitation (meaning you do not allow the machine to do the agitation for you; you stop the machine and hand agitate by pressing on the quilt. The spin cycles are okay in a top-loader; it's the back-and-forth agitator action that is hard on the quilt).