OK, so my two cents worth on this....
One, it's going to a little boy, who will cuddle it, make forts with it, drag it around, pretend it's his Army tent, pretend the Dino's are going with him somewhere, and on and on. I can tell you, it's going to be seriously loved and used. He is NOT going to notice any minor shrinkage.
Two, as others have said, quilt it pretty densely, not just stitch-in-the-ditch. If you do pantos, I'm CERTAIN I've seen some dino pantos online somewhere. Those should give you the quilting you need, as well as giving the little guy even MORE dinos to look at. Between the slight shrink of the batting, and the panto quilting, the brown shrink should not be noticeable.
Three, this is one of those "live and learn" lessons. Me personally - I NEVER prewash, simply because I don't want to have to stress over something like just like this situation. (I can HEAR some of you gasping!
) I've never had any issues by doing this. Will this policy "bite" me someday? Probably, but I've been quilting since I was pregnant with my daughter (and she's 33 in July), and just never really had any problems with not prewashing.
Like I said, this is just my two cents worth... and that won't even buy a piece of bubblegum anymore.
