the crinkled look comes from using cotton batting, for less of a crinkle you could use a nice polyester or even wool batting. there are some very nice poly batts that do not shrink at all and make nice lofty, soft quilts. the batting package should tell you how close you need to quilt- some batts need to be quilted every 2", some allow up to 10" between lines, it's important to follow the guidelines so the batting does not separate & fall apart inside the quilt. it is always ok to quilt more dense than is recommended-just not less. heavy quilting (might) decrease the crinkling, or some people pre-shrink their batts...if you want to go that route make sure you follow the instructions (also on the package) for doing so, so you don't wind up with a big mess.