Thank you all. The black dots are the little bits of plants. They are all over the entire thing so there's no cutting them off, although I could maybe pick some off. I will do that if they're especially big but I prefer not to. lol. Since I'm not using a longarm I'll just stick with my plan of putting the dots toward the backing. I don't want to buy muslin to put in between but I may put it in a pillowcase and wash/dry it first. Good idea.