I suspect the reason the info is so lacking on backing, battings, tying them off is because many were left without a backing. My family has one made by my great-great grandmother and her twin sister who were milliners. It was never backed so my grandmother who never learned to sew hired a lady to back it. She used a heavy gray knit. It's awful. However when my mother took it to be included in a history of antique quilts that was done in 1976, the historian told her to leave it that way as it helped stablize it. Possibly because they were made with pieces of fancy fabrics, ribbons, etc they were on going projects that might never have been finished. When more fancy bites of fabric came to them, the quilts grew in size. They were often layed out over a bed or a piece of furniture just for show, so they didn't need to have a batting. And most people couldn't afford a large piece of fancy fabric to back them if they were finished to the size the maker wanted. Just my thoughts...