I'm not sure why they were tied instead of quilted. I think a lot of the utilitarian quilts were made with scraps and it was probably cheaper to tie than use the thread to quilt a pattern in. The crazy quilts used the decorative stitching to quilt them, I think. As for not putting the binding on before you quilt it, that is because the quilting takes up some of the size of the quilt and you might get puckers around the edges? Some folks on here have said they've bound their quilts before quilting without problems, but they may have just been very lucky! I personally like tied quilts. I think it gives them an old-fashioned look and feel.