In these days of the Statler Stitcher, not as much attention seems to be paid to the little things. My daughter, when long arming, without a stitcher, was often checking both sides of the quilt for imperfections.
After I put my best in a quilt, I do not want a careless person to ruin it. I do not know what the answer is, but until then we will have to be choosy in picking a long armer. Too bad, because we do pay good money to have our treasures quilted.

I have back and neck issues so bending over is a chore for me so I installed a logitech camera to the under side of my quilt machine so I can at least see the bobbin stitches. I also feel by hand once in a while too. Plus while I'm advancing the quilt I'll run my eyes along the section of the back that's showing on the back bar as it advances. I try to make sure there's no folds or wrinkles in my backing before I attach it to the frame.

I keep a mirror tile on my quilting table, every turn of the bars I am checking, smoothing, adjusting, looking the length of the area. Then I start to quilt again, stop after a few inches and look again. I check, double check with every bobbin change too. I hate ( un-quilting) so am very diligent. It is much more time saving to ensure all is correct than to undo and redo.

Yes, I check backings as I go. I hate to see pleats in the backing AFTER I am done, so I check before, during and after each row is quilted. That is a lesson learned the hard way.

I'm assuming the first quilter was paid for her services and not doing the quilting as a favor. Why wouldn't you go back to her and ask her to unquilt it and do it correctly. She must be aware of her mistake, or if not, should be make aware of it. I think you have every right to do so.

Thanks for your replies. I am more than half-way on my journey of Un-quilting. It's not a terrible process. I am learning a great lesson and gaining a little knowledge about quilting and myself. So win-win!

My original posts asked a question about the long-arm process. It was never about addressing the issues with the original quilter. As I mentioned the issues will be addressed personally at a later time. I will see her in the next week or two and we will chat. It is not an urgent matter.

I had to give myself some time and distance with the matter and needed to consult with other quilters first. This was a new situation that I haven't experienced before and wanted to gather my thoughts first.

At this time, I am not requesting anyone else to do the un-quilting. It is intensive and a project that could have additional mishaps. It's not a project to delegate to others.

The issue of the fold was pointed out to me by the quilter. I thought it would be an easy fix that I could live with and the quilting also appeared fine. After careful consideration I made the decision to fix the error. I am not a "live with it" girl. The setback just adds a little "grit and grace" to my quilt and I will love it even more.

Again,thanks Everyone! I appreciate your helpful tips and comments on the long-arm process. I feel that I can now "gracefully" provide valuable feedback to the original quilter and help her in her quilting journey too.

When the quilt is finished, I want to see love and grace in it and not an un-happy experience.

Thanks Everyone!

This happens because the longarmer didn’t cut the batting to the width of the backing.

As the quilt winds on the takeup bar, the outer edges begin to flop around because of the slack and a pucker can result.

This can happen whether the quilter is using a computerized system or freehanding.

One LA I used had skipped stitches and many many bad starts and stops, and loopy tension in all the curve stitching I called her she said that was normal and to expect perfect was unreasonable. I took the quilt and another that was nicely quilted to show her what was 'reasonable'. She was miffed I asked for a refund. I found out later she bought the LA and expected to quilt for others to pay for it and didn't know anything about how to do it. No one in the guilds (I belong to three) would use her after seeing my quilt after I did a showing her 'reasonable work' at Show and Tell. Another LA did an excellent job of requilting it . How a business handles complaints from a guild member will have consequences on the business and if she doesn't know that, she will soon.

this is exactly why this can happen. Other reasons would be an off square back (which Rhonda already said was not the case), a back that was pieced with grain going several different directions (a problem I ran into with a customer quilt and could not solve with the backing she gave me--so I knocked off 1/2 the price), and recently I had my own quilt with flannel backing and the quilt design was pulling the back first one way then the other and creating ripples--had to unstitch and starch/steam and make sure those side clamps were doing their job! Hope this helps you for figuring out in the future Rhonda--sounds like you did your part though.

I would say this is only one of many reasons this can happen. Don't make assumptions.
For a short list: not stretching the back with clamps; if it's custom quilted, quilting from the outside in; clamping backing and batting, rather than just backing; out of square/poorly pieced backing (not your problem, from what you said); not pinned/rolled squarely on the frame; not stretched/free of wrinkles on the roller bar; not checking the backing with each roll.
As a longamer, I have to admit familiarity with most of the above :(

Whatever the root cause (and only the longarmer would know for sure which mistake she made), it's definitely not something I would be happy with. I'm glad she pointed it out to you and didn't try to hide it, but sorry you had to put so much extra effort into correcting the issue.