The last baby quilt I made I thread basted it very close(2" apart vertical and horizontal) because the backing was just barely big enough, then I sewed an 8" wide muslin strip all the way around the quilt before I loaded it on my long arm. That gave me the extra room needed to quilt an edge to edge pattern on the quilt. After quilting I just removed the muslin and all of the thread basting.
Cari