Quilting question!

[cityginger.livejournal.com]

I'm in the process of putting the binding around a Pittsburgh Pirates blanket that I'm making for my boyfriend. It's the second blanket I've made, and for some reason was much more time consuming and difficult. With the blanket I made before, a crib sized blanket for a new cousin, I never did any official "quilting" with it, there was just the front, batting, and back, with stitching only around the edges. I washed it when I was all finished, and everything turned out great.
The blanket this time is larger, about a full sized comforter. The batting I used was Quilter's 80/20, and it says that the recommended quilting distance is 2"-4". I hadn't planned on doing any quilting with this blanket as it doesn't really go with the style of it, but I'm wondering what will happen when the blanket is washed? I guess if I need to, I can do some ties in the blanket, but I'm hoping I really don't have to do that, especially 2-4 inches apart.
So I guess my question is, what's going to happen if I don't tie anything? And if I do need to tie, does it really need to be that close together?
Sorry for being so clueless, I'm still learning!

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