I know I have to have a drawn line to follow so I'll have straight quilting. I do straight stitch from end to end with a walking foot. It's easy and looks great. Give it a try.

Either donate it, or, if you really like it, spend the time and rip it out and send it to your machine quilter. It would be such a shame to waste all your hours of work for nothing.

Somehow I doubt it is as bad as you think. Lay it out on the bed and look at it from a distance. It might surprise you that it's better than you think. If that doesn't help and you really like the quilt, as I believe you, do take out the stitching and give it another shot.

I would do as some have said. Give it a wash and throw it on your bed. Look at it from a distance; what do they say about that galloping horse going 30mph? Consider it a learning experience and be proud of your accomplishment. You did try and that's the main thing. If you still decide you may want to remove the stitching, I suggest what I use. A small 28mm rotary does wonders. Easy to hold and control. But give it and yourself a break.

I agree with what many have said here. I am in a huge charity quilt group that gets many many donations-mainly unquilted tops. We just do not have enough volunteers to do the quilting on all of these. We would not unpick someone else's work and it would just get put in a box for who knows what? It is a shame but that is just the reality.

Don't give up. I have one that I just started taking out the stitches. It sat for nearly five years while I did other stuff. I had done some by hand and a lot by machine. Take out a little bit each day. I did about an hour and then played with other stuff. It is worth it. Take a deep breath and put on some nice music.

If it is bunching up maybe you need to release some pressure on your presser foot. That might help. I have unquilted many a quilt in the past.

put it aside for a little while then see how you feel. I hate pulling stitches out but many times I have been glad that I did... makes the finish that much sweeter to me :) Good luck

It would be a shame to end up hating it...you'll be happier taking out the stitches and starting over. I am currently in the middle of hand quilting (big stitch) a twin size hand pieced quilt. I got 3/4 done with the quilting and decided I didn't like how it was turning out. So, I started in the middle and started ripping out the stitches and quilting it differently. MUCH happier with it now and it didn't take that long. Hubby thought I was nuts, but it looks much better. I only took out a foot or so at a time, left the rest in as extra basting and take out 8" or so ahead of the quilting. Persevere, you worked hard on it, don't stick with quilting if you hate it.

I know exactly how you feel. I did close together serpentine stitches and the pleats by the end were horrific but I just couldn't face unpicking and re doing with no guarantee that it would look any better so I just washed it and you know what if I get up close to it I can still see the pleats but when it's on the back of the chair or on the bed or even draped over me I've got to really look for them. I've since had another disaster when quilting but got lots of good advice from this wonderful quilters on this board. I think my walking foot is the problem it just pushes the fabric ahead of it like a wave, even lessening the pressure on the presser foot makes no difference so I'm going to take it to the shop to get them to test it and if that's the case I'll get a new one. Good luck it will be better than you think.