I wouldn't wash an art quilt and I usually don't quilts I gift. I give them some color catchers and instructions on washing. The exceptions to washing quilts I gift is allergies. I alway check to see if anyone in the household is allergic to dog or cat (have one of each). They normally aren't on the quilts but the quilts were in a house with animals. I wash them the night before I gift them.

I don't make art quilts. I do have a wall hanging and a table topper that I did not wash. I did not use any markers on them.
Any quilts for using I do wash as soon as the binding is finished. I use markers to mark rows and such and want them gone.

I don't wash before presentation. But I do give washing instructions with it. I also volunteer to do the first washing and can then fix any spots that may need it.

I would never tell someone else what they should do -- wash or not wash! That's their choice. However, I, too am afflicted with adult onset asthma and it has been especially bad the past year or so. Spent 5 days in the hospital with pneumonia (a complication of asthma) and, yes, I will wash my finished quilts. I don't make art quilts--- perhaps embroidered quilts -- but not art quilts. If embroidery can't stand up to the gentle cycle on my washer, then it may end up being gone. The only large whole cloth embroidered quilt is of the Arkansas Razorback which serves as my avatar. Yes, I washed it, both before it was embroidered and after -- as someone mentioned, you have oils and residues from your hands, and at the time I did that quilt, we had pets (we don't have pets anymore, because I can't stand to lose one of my furbabies -- it hurts too much). Washing that quilt top (on gentle cycle) was a piece of cake. This is also the quilt where I was introduced to fabric bleeding (my very first bed-sized quilt), but I found a solution that sets the die and I keep it on hand. I handle the fabric after it comes in the door only long enough to serge the raw edges so it doesn't ravel in the washer/dryer, because I don't want to risk a severe asthma attack. But, for me to tell someone else that they must or must not wash a quilt -- we don't have quilt police and there's no law that says we have to wash the darn quilt! JMHO Jeanette