I use a friends longarm to quilt my quilts I'm not understanding how others are saying it's the customers fault. If the issue in the bottom border it seams like the quilt got stretched when it was loaded on the longarm to me. It can happen from pulling to taught, if the top layed flat before quilting it should have after. I feel like your getting the short end of the stick, everyone is quick to blame your technique. If this has never happened before then you probably did everything right, sometimes it is the service you received and now your stuck fixing their mistake. Your in a no win situation. I would cover one with your label and fix the other two best you can. You can always adjust your quilting to less dense and you can avoid that as well. Communication was key here if the puckering was on the top you know when your quilting there is an issue. Sorry this happened I hope you can fix it as much as possible.

Rachel, what I'm understanding is that LAQs are receiving quilts that are not laying flat, that were not squared before the borders were put on, and/or where the borders that were put on by the customer were not measured and cut appropriately before being added.

It may also be true that stretching occurs on the frame but I don't think that's what's being discussed here.

what I am learning is that I can minimize the amount of puckering of borders by cutting my borders the appropriate length before sewing them on.