For the curious, I decided to wash and dry the pieced quilt top before starting to attach it to the fleece backing. I washed in hot water, rinsed in cold, and dried on the highest setting. The results sort of surprised me. Not much was lost in length, maybe an inch or two if that. But the width -- oh my. Six inches lost to shrinkage. I was profoundly glad I'd washed it first. Fortunately, I had made another panel, just in case. That is in the wash, even as I'm writing this note. After its all dried and ironed, I'll attach it to the bigger piece and then begin the hair-raising process of quilting it to the fleece.
The reason it's going to be rough is that the process of shrinking affected some pieces of flannel more than others. One piece -- a gorgeous, soft maroon with a wheat sort of fleck in it -- just shrank in both directions for all it was worth. Let's just say that there area number of wonky areas now. Plenty of need for "quilting it out." Another piece of yardage also shrank differently than the fabric it's sewn to. I don't really know why one would shrink and the other wouldn't. I'm pretty sure I can make this look great. But thank goodness I didn't try any fancy patterns. I can just see a star with one set of points flat and lovely and the other set of points puckered like crazy. LOL
This has convinced me that flannel must be tortured before sewing it together. I thought that was the case, but of course I couldn't wash the strips and blocks my mom sent. Now I know for sure and I'm never ever going to accept already-cut pieces of flannel unless it's pre- shrunk.
Sunny