how to hand quilt an old wavy quilt?
 

I am trying to hand quilt an old quilt top that wont lie flat. the edges were uneven, so i turned them under and pinned and basted them. but if i make it as flat as possible, it will be a quilt with catty-wonky dimensions. if i make it as flat as possible, i will be quilting over ripples and making puckers. it was hand peiced and so not accurate seam-matching, so i think my quilting over ripples will just follow the character that it already has. what do you think?

do you have a picture by any chance?? Some wonkiness might work its way out when put in the quilt frame and stretched out. Or you can take it apart and put it back together so it lies flat...(which might be my choice if it were really unworkable)

eta: I will admit that i'm pretty much a perfectionist about a lot of things, too.....unsquare wouldn't bother me as much as the top not being able to lie flat.

I agree that I would probably take the borders off, if they're the only problem, and reattach them so that they're lying flat. If the problem goes beyond the borders, I would make a decision based on where I got the quilt and what I want to do with it when it's finished. A little wonkiness can be just fine.

What's wrong with a little wonkiness on an old quilt?ha. I'll bet I would leave it that way.

A puffier batting will help take up some of the wonkiness. I'd probably just take little tucks here and there as I went.

or...you could just tie it instead of quilting it- with a lofty batting- then the wonkiness wouldn't be noticable.
or use a lofty batting & big-stitch quilting just enough to hold it together...if removing the borders & re-applying is not an answer.
how about pictures? then we could see what you are dealing with & maybe have more ideas :)

I would use a combination of quilting a design on the better blocks, and tying 4 ties on the wonky blocks. Waves go good on wonky blocks, but overall tying may be the best way.

thankyou so much for all the feedback. i will try to post a picture, but if it doesn't work, this is my blog with pictures: www.carmenpimmtucker.blog.com.
i am doing this for a friend, so i don't want to cut into it. just for sentimental value only. no borders. i like scissor queen's mention of the batting. if you see the picture, i was just going to stitch in the ditch, no frills.[ATTACH=CONFIG]365951[/ATTACH]

Love it! I would go with the suggestion to use a lofty batting and tie it.

You can see in the picture waves on both sides in the middle and waves on both ends. this is what happens when i try to flatten it. i can only guess that i have to ease-in the fullness as i baste and quilt.