Yes, you CAN rip it out. I just scrape my fingernail across the holes so that they merge into undisturbed fabric, again, before re-quilting.
Truthfully, the only people that will notice any wonkiness... are other quilters.
It is NOT EVEN ON THE RADAR of non-quilters. Seriously! They never even see it! It doesn't exist! They only see the overall impression of the quilt. It's ONE THING... A QUILT... it doesn't have PARTS (to them).
I've been amazed by this fact. Of course, I'm a quilter, and it IS on MY radar. LOL!
From Kathryn Kistner in Texas, who's now saying,
"Please yourself... but nobody else cares."