What type of machine do you have?

To all the terrific ladies who were gracious enough to share their advice with me I just want to let you know that after ironing, starching, starching & more starching & (thank God) for spray 505 I have achieved success with my quilt. I am almost finished my SID & everything has worked wonderfully well. I also lowered the pressure on my foot & adjusted my stitch length & so far so good. I am so grateful for this forum & all the wonderful suggestions that I received. Thank you all so much.

I have a Bernina 820 with all the bells & whistles (which I am still learning about) & I love it. It took some getting used to but I am very happy with it. In Canada it retails for about $7500 - $8000. so the big draw back is the price but my husband bought it for my 65th birthday.

Did you let the batting relax before you did the sandwich? Also I have found that if I keep the fabric taut from side to side as I stitch it seems to prevent wrinkles ahead of the pressure foot. I do use a walking foot but sometimes wonder if it is broken. I use the red finger tip covers so I get a better grip on the quilt as I go. Also, make sure you have room in the back of the machine so the quilt can keep going out the back. I was rolling the part of the quilt under the arm and it was so stiff it couldn't fall behind the machine. And keep the front bunched in your lap so the machine does not have to pull so hard to get it through. If you are stitching on the bias, you may be stretching it in that area.

How thick is the wadding in your quilt? If it is a thicker, softer, wadding I believe you may have more difficulty with this happening. If this is the case, I don't think pinning will be enough to stabilise it for quilting. You may need to spray baste and also do some large basting stitches by hand or machine to keep everything in place before you start seriously quilting. Use a walking foot for stitch in the ditch and don't sew in the one direction all of the time, so that you are evening up the "push" direction of the fabric.
It is much easier to quilt with thinner wadding. All the best with your efforts.