I took a couple of classes but found basting well helped to not get pleats on the back. I was most successful with 505 basting spray, Hobbs 80/20 fusible quilt batt and now Elmer's washable glue basting. Some like thread basting and pin basting. If your quilt sandwich is well basted, it makes quitting easier. Since the advent of machine quilting with a ruler foot, I have taken the Quilting With Rulers class with Amy from freemotionquiltingadventures.blogspot.com/