My sad story has a happy ending, in a way. When I first started hand-quilting I made a wedding quilt for my niece and hand-quilting with a hoop, no pins, no basting spray, just started in the center. Anyway I had a hugh leftover pouf of backing left at one edge, so in my feeble brain I thought I'd just make a pleat so it would look as though it was meant to be like that. Now, years later, my niece asked if I could do some repair on her quilt. The 'leftover' fabric was perfectly aged with the rest of the quilt, I was able to fix my mistake & make repairs with "vintage" fabric.