Did not prewash muslin - HELP please!
 

Good Afternoon,
I'm looking for some advice and figured this board is a very large resource for information! I have been working on a quilt for my grandson and it finally dawned on me (now that I've almost got the top completed) that I did not prewash the muslin and that muslin shrinks! (Even if I did buy it in a quilt shop!) Sigh! SO, Now what do I do?
I've washed some samples today and the fabric barely shrunk in one direction but the other, Oh, my!
5"X5" came out about 4 7/8" X 4 1/2"
5"X10" came out 4 3/4" X 9 7/8"
5"X30" came out 4 7/8" X 28 1/2" ----Not good! Not good at all!!!
I've tried to attach a photo of what I've got so far. (fingers crossed that it works) I have one last corner to add and then I'll trim the sides and length to size.
I've not had a pattern to construct this thing. It was just a photo off the internet. I have no idea now where I even found the original but my grandson said he wanted one just like that! So, what's a grandma to do?
Any help or suggestions will be most appreciated.

P.S. I know I've not posted anything in years but I have been around watching and enjoying all of your beautiful quilts and heeding some excellent suggestions here and there! You all are a fabulous resource! Thank you in advance for your ideas!

SO, the photo posted! Yay for me! But it's upside down! Why? How does one turn it over? Like I said, It's been a long time since I've posted here!

I can click on it and then View image to see it right side up.
I would suggest you finish the quilt, doing quilting in all sections. the quilting will hold the fabric in place and if it wrinkles a bit in the dryer, just say it's supposed to! lovely quilt!!!

Quite honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about it. ALL cotton shrinks, and the quilting will stabilize the shrinkage anyway.

I am not sure but if you quilt the quilt with a quite dense but uniform quilt stitching overall you may be able to control the different amount of shrinkage on the quilt from all the different types of materials. If you quilt quite close, the stitching will only allow the fabric to shrink so far. That's what I would try rather than taking everthing apart and rewashing, resizing,recutting and sewing all those pieces again.

My thoughts are (1) consider using polyester batting since it doesn't shrink and (2) quilt it fairly densely.. The combination should keep the muslin in shape.

If you wouldn't wash it in hot water and run it through a hot dryer, the shrinkage would be so minimal you wouldn't notice. There's no need to "cook" a quilt in hot water.

this is my suggestion also

I would agree with this.

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I'll just go ahead as I have been! Act like I know what i'm doing when it is obviously very questionable!
The question now is polyester batting as Jeanne S. suggested above or cotton. I was thinking polyester too but my sister questioned whether a 'non-shrinking' batt would put stress on to the fabric if the fabric wanted to shrink and the batt didn't. Her reasoning sounded good (it always does!) for using a cotton batt. Hmm. Decisions! I hate decisions!
I have to say, this quilt is not my usual style and I've had difficulty making it from the get go but I'm loving how it's turning out - or was, until I remembered the shrinking bit!
Well, All ahead full tomorrow! I'll keep you posted on how this all turns out in the end. This grandson is being very patient with me. His birthday was in October! Oops!
Thank you so much!