In the 1800's quilts were sometimes made using clean, washed fleece, perhaps roving?, as batting. My grandmother made some this way. I think she usually tied them because they were utility quilts not "company" quilts. Company quilts were the only ones she quilted. these were kept in a chest and used only when company spent the night! The ones used for the family were tied. Due to the size of the family and the number of the quilts that were made, along with the sheets that were woven, etc. and everything else that was made I can understand why company quilts were protected and saved for guests - and special guests at that, like visiting ministers! Anyway, she used to tell me that the best sleeping in her life was on the feather bed she had made, between the sheets she had woven, under the quilts with wool batting. She had a wood stove in the kitchen to cook on and a Ben Franklin stove in the living room but no heat in any other room. Her father was a judge and her husband was a minister. She was definitely middle class. I wonder what it was like to be poor? She was born in 1878 during reconstruction.