I always wash first for several reasons. Reason one, is that first wash is important to have enough room and sometimes I take fresh projects to the laundromat to use the big machines. Second is that if anything bad happens, it happens to me and I can either fix it or we know that there was a problem that in no way came from the recipient. Third is I have pets and defurring things is a requirement around here. Some of us live with those sticky tape rollers everywhere and still go about covered with hair and threads..
I've had exactly one quilt ruined in my career by running dye. It was quite the shock to open the washer and find the sophisticated maroon, blue and silver/grey with sparkles of white now had baby pink blocks instead... the fabric never stopped running and the quilt never cleared up but as my friend said -- I can drink grape juice in bed with this one. I had taken my standard pre-washing precautions and it turned out it was not enough.
I've had many projects where maybe I was unhappy about the quality of my quilting stitches that came out better after washing. Other than the one that ran, none were worse after washing and others helped. Sometimes maybe a problem shows up better after washing, but it was usually there before and just not caught yet.
When giving as gifts, I do give instructions that the project was machine sewn, machine quilted and designed to be machine washable.