Oh wow...I had not even given a thought yet to finishing the edges! I will have to look up what a knife edge binding is!
Roguequilter...are you saying that you have pictures of quilts from that era that do NOT appear crinkly? I have read that they used whatever they had on hand for batting...old blankets, wool cardings, etc. That, plus however "shrinky" their fabric was, would affect the end "crinklyness". I am beginning to think there are too many variables here to be able to say what is "correctly authentic"...hmmmm.