Advice Needed - take the whole quilt apart?
 

My mother-in-law recently completed a quilt top. For her 90th birthday, I agreed to quilt it, so I brought the top, a batting that she'd chosen. and her backing fabric home. She has macular degeneration and when I actually looked at the back of the quilt - Arrggghh! I believe the individual pieces were cut out using a pattern - but they don't all seem to be the same size. No piecing seam is 1/4" - it's different between each two pieces of fabric. The quilt is made up of 12 large blocks (16" I think) with sashing and blocks between. I've taken one strip of 4 blocks off and thought I'd start by working on that, but there are a couple of individual pieces that have a tuck/pucker in them. The back of the quilt was never ironed. It's a mess!

Soooo. What's your suggestion? Do I need to take the whole quilt apart (it will take forever to take the stitches out), or just try to get it done as is, or is there some other remedy that you can think of?

If the seams seem to be sufficient to hold the pieces together, I would try to iron them flat and just make sure there's enough quilting, to prevent any mishaps. My reasoning is that it's HER work and if you redo it, it'll be YOUR work. Sentiment is much more valuable than perfection. :)

I have the same problem with a quilt that my friend made and gave to the church's charity just before she moved. I have ended up with trying to fix it. I had been suspicious that she was not as good of a quilter that she let others think she was. You might have to do some tucks to get the top to lay flat but she will be delighted when it is finished. She won't see her mistakes. Just do the best you can.

Like the other posters, I am assuming you are machine quilting this, not hand quilting it.

I would just press the top and backing and get it as flat as you can. You don't mention if you are doing this on a rack setup where it is more difficult to load an out of square top. But it is not impossible. Do not take the quilt apart to redo. Just do the best you can and I am sure she will love it. Swirly curvy quilting can work in a lot of fullness. Don't attempt to SITD, it will only amplify any inconsistencies in the piecing and straight like quilting will work fullness into furrows which will give you even worse tucks and puckers. An all over meander or similar type quilting, fairly densely done will help to reinforce the quilt and hide a multitude of problems.

I have to agree. Press it as well as you can, and just quilt it as well as you can. I have had lots of problems with seams in the past, but it was "my" work...and that is all a process.

I agree completely with feline fanatic.

I have frame quilted a couple of tops like this for my sister. All I did was repair holes (they will catch on the machine foot!) and occasionally, if the seam allowance was 1/8" or so, would stitch again to give a 1/4" seam. In some places I ironed fusible interfacing to the wrong side to reinforce an area. I did close quilting using loops and swirls with Glide thread and Mountain Mist 100% cotton blue ribbon batting (which is rather thin). At times I would place cans of soup on each side of the machine to help take care of fullness. The tops turned out great! Unless you are a quilter, you would never know of all the issues with the piecing. (In one instance, my sister left the paper inside a fusible applique. Most likely no one but me knows now that it is quilted. Washing helped soften up the paper.)

Edit: I did spray starch and iron the tops before loading on the frame. And I told my sister not to bother with the backings anymore -- to just give them to me. This way I can make sure the backing is square and straight, with even seams.

I agree with not taking it apart. Just check for seams that are way too small and may come apart. If you can take a larger seam in these places, then do it. If not, use a featherweight iron on interfacing. Don't know what batting she chose, but a puffier poly or wool will absorb more of the unevenness than a flat cotton.

I agree with Neesie 100%. I'm hoping to be able to feed myself at ninety let alone piece a quilt. Think of it this way, it will have a charm of it's own.

This is one of those times when I have to agree with most of the others in leaving it "as is" as much as possible..

Thinking of her piecing this quilt brings tears to my eyes. I agree with everyone else, do minimal repairs and quilt it the best you can. There are many of us that would take a quilt like that an love it to pieces.