Alex Anderson is on HGTV's web cite. I watched her on how to pin a quilt to do machine Quilting. The bottom has to be tight and smoth pinning the sandwich has to be pinned every 2" a part. After I watched her I have had no problem with my back. On quilt frames the back has to be tight. If there is some pleating on the top it is from your sewing I have found that out. From doing my own Machine quilting. Check out the web cite. She has a lot of stuff on quilting.

Well, I have heard that if you are not happy with her work, your word will spread and she will end up with no work at all. You should take it back and have HER remove all the stitching and then either have her redo it or just get it back, with your $$. Take it somewhere else. That is not good business at all. Load it right and there really should not be a problem. Wish you good luck in what ever you decide to do. :)

Really, I LOVE you people:-) Amazing support here!

I wish I wasn't so scared about it though! I just don't know how to START the conversation!

Hi cent - You start the conversation with "Mary, I am SO Unhappy
with the way you did this quilt." and then if she says something dumb like
"what's wrong with it" you will have reason to get your dander up and tell her what's wrong with it and what you'd like her to do about it.
Your quilt is unusable as it is - so you have nothing to lose.

Please don't let someone get away with this behavior. The next person
certainly won't.

Thanks Pal!

SO, if I start out saying I'm unhappy about, she is going to tell me it's my fault again. She knows I am not a pro. quilter by any means. What do I say to her to let her know that I know it's her fault and not mine?

Tell her that you have discussed this with professionals. Because you have. These ladies know what they are talking about.

I also took a quilt to a "professional" quilter and she messed it up. It had tucks, puckers and pleats on the back. It couldn't have been my backing fabric because I used the wide backing and it wasn't pieced. She charged $60.00. I picked every stitch out of the quilt and took it to another long arm quilter and she did a beautiful job. I didn't say anything to the first quilter about her mess, but I learned my lesson and won't be taking anything else to her. It was an expensive lesson, but I learned from it.

I'm so sorry you had bad results in having your quilt, quilted!
Is it possible for you to post photos of the pleats, and the entire back? Sometimes if they aren't quilted in, they can be steamed out with an iron....
If I lived anywhere near you, I'd come and check out the results and hopefully be able to offer a suggestion.
Did the longarmer give you and definite reason on what you "did wrong" that she says caused the problem?
Did she give you any guidance on what to do in the future (besides not hiring her) to avoid the problem again?
Do you live in central Illinois by chance?....I'd come and offer help if I could!
I think it, if not a voilation of board policy, posting the names of bad longarm quilters could keep a lot of quilters from having the same experience.
It is such a shame that she didn't respect the time and effort you invested in your work!
Sue

She said that I stretched the fabric when I sewed it. I don't remember doing that, but as I've said before, I am still in the learning process. I've taken a couple pictures, I'll post some tonight to show you what happened.

See, when I picked it up she said "because you stretched the fabric on the back, the green fabric "puckered"." I thought it was no big deal 'cause I like the puckered look. But when I got home and saw it, it wasn't what I would call puckering, there were areas where it looked like she folded it and then sewed it, ya know! It's not all over the back, but enough to where it stands out.