You are preaching to the choir sister! I too am a prewasher before gifting for this reason and many others. I am a hand binder so even on machine quilted quilts, the quilt is bound to pick up some dirt, skin oils and definitely pet hair from the binding process. So in addition to catching compromised seams, I wash to ensure I am gifting a clean cat hair free as possible quilt. I also prewash quilts I show too and go over them with a sticky tape roller in a pet free environment. CKcowl, your story is the perfect illustration of what can happen if we don’t wash first to ensure there will be no burst seams. The intended giftee will surely feel it is their fault and did something wrong. I would never want that to happen.
PS beautiful quilt!