I had flannel sheets that I thought were soft. But I couldn't find them again, so I decided to try this. Holy moly. These are so soft and cuddly... they make getting out of bed even more difficult! They're warm, too. I took one of our other layers off the bed to compensate, and now it's perfect.
I did not try the on the bed before washing, but they fit fine afterward. They came through the wash with no pilling, but a lot of lint, which I expected. I actually had to empty the link trap and run them through the dryer a second time. Given that our dryer is ancient, I wasn't surprised by that.
I chose the brown. Judging from the color shown on my monitor, I expected a dark, espresso brown. But "Chocolate" was pretty accurate -- they're the color of a Hershey bar. Not what I wanted, but I'll live with it because they are otherwise so wonderful.