Sounds like you're set on ripping it out, so have at it and I bow to your perseverence.
I personally would not rip it out, which makes me clearly in the minority here.
I would rather spend my time figuring out a way to make what is already there appealing than picking at stitches and then having to re-quilt the whole darn thing. Are you sure that your efforts to hand quilt a king log cabin are going to be significantly better? Or done in this lifetime?
Depending on the design, what I would do is figure out how to applique something interesting over the log cabin blocks, covering up the most objectionable puckers. I could imagine a floral and vine pattern working, or maybe even a favorite animal silhouette -- birds of various types are very popular right now, and would lend themselves to that approach.
RST