Go for it! If you like the 'cheater' fabric, it's your quilt, your home, your friends, your family.
I have made many lap size quilts that just use a single piece of fabric with a border, and I love to use panels in quilts. So far no one has complained about them - or else no one has had the nerve to complain about them to me!
PS. Over the years I have only met one member of the quilt police - and she is ME, critiquing my own work.