I also take the papers out once the piece is completely surrounded.
My 5 year old daughter has a EPPd star quilt I made when she first went into a big girl's bed, aged 2, quilted with Hobbs 80/20 by hand. It goes in the washer frequently (as you can imagine!) and in the dryer on wool setting, minimum dry. Then I finish it off draped over an airer. It just gets softer and nicer with every wash and no unravelling stitches that I can see! It was pieced with YLI 60 wt and quilted with 100 percent cotton 50wt hand quilting thread.