Ripping out
 

LAers, how much ripping out have you done to a finished quilt? I am having to rip out the last 24 inches of a 90 inch quilt. There was a big pleat in the backing, When I advanced the quilt I did not noticed that the backing was loose in the center. When I finished and was checking the back I saw the extra fabric..

I guess I will be working on picking off those last two rows :(. If it was for me I would have left it but it is for a customer and she is donating it to a charity auction and my reputation is also on the line..

Always aim to do the best even if I lose $ on it on it.

It was not an LA quilt but I spend a week ripping quilting out of a quilt because it looked ugly, ugly, ugly! It was white on mostly black squares. I am glad I did it because now the quilt is very pretty and looks nice whereas if I had not done it I would have wasted all those resources, probably about $250 to $300. I can't do that-so I ripped.
I know you had professional reasons, but it was the right thing to do.

I don't quilt for hire, but I'm pretty careful about looking at the finished portion of the quilt as I roll. There was a recent discussion on why you float your quilt top. Floating the top and batt allows me to check before I stitch.
It's probably sheer dumb luck that I haven't had to rip out a lot. I've caught my tension issues (eyelashing) that occurred on small areas when still on the frame and of course this is a breeze to take out compared to your situation.
Just put on some nice music or a good movie, and take your time.

It is time consuming to rip out longarm stitching, but you do get faster with more practice. (Practice that none of us really want to do!)

I work with a LAer and once ripped out an entire queen quilt. The customer had brought in 2 quilts to be quilted, one applique and one pieced. They were similar in color, and the longarmer had a "helper" who got them mixed up. The appliqued one got quilted with the pattern chosen for the pieced one, and it wasn't discovered until she went to load the second quilt. So she hired me to rip it out. Don't know that I'd want to do it again!

I quilted an entire wide border on a queen sized quilt for a customer before I decided I didn't like the way it looked...8 hours of frogging perfectly tensioned quilting was a bummer but I hated the thought of quilting that FMQ pattern on 3 more borders. I hate it when the center of the backing sags or one side sags...ugh! I have gotten into the habit of checking the backing after every roll...never had a tuck like you describe, but that is only because I check every time. I am so sorry you had this happen...frustrating to say the least!!!

I had one thing to do this morning before Linus - sew down the top of the binding on a kid quilt. I'm absolutely sure that I ripped out more stitches than I put in! Finally left without it. I need to be relaxed, it seems!

Oh, Mamagrande, I'm feeling for you right now. Had something similar happen and like you I couldn't allow it to go out of my studio for a customer. Took HOURS to unsew, but well worth it.

Just finished my own whole cloth and showing my husband I realized I had a tiny pleat on the back--think it was from rolling it back and forth several times due to thread colors and circular designs. Even though I know it will mean no ribbons, etc in the show I'm putting it in, I really don't care---first competitive show for me and I've been thinking about it for 2 yrs and just decided I had to do it--and besides I LOVE the design and that's what's important--plus getting feedback from judges (like, no pleats!)

Hope the quilt your are working on makes lots of $$ for the charity!