Eliminating a Fold On the Back of a Quilt

Major fold fixed--sort of....
Here's the post about the horrendous fold as it originally occurred. 

After a shockingly large investment of time, here's what it looked like. I was still adding quilting at the point this photo was taken.

Yes, I know the solution is hard to see.  Here's what I did:
Using a very fine, thin polyester thread (I used light grey from Fil-Tec's Bobbin Line) I ran rows of running stitches 1/2 to a little over 5/8 inch apart across the bubbly area.  I did not go through to the front of the quilt; however, since I "snugged up" the stitches as I stitched, I didn't worry about catching my small needle in the batting.  In fact, I now think catching the batting probably helped.

Because the fold was originally so deep (nearly 1/2 inch at it's deepest), I ripped out the quilting over a fairly large area.  I did the running stitches over that entire area (just a peek shown above). 

I would suggest a size 7 or 8 sharp or between needle for this kind of corrections, although I'm sure other sizes and styles of needles could be made to work. I began with a really huge quilters knot that I left on the surface of the fabric, tugged out the fullness in the fabric and tied another really big knot at the end of each line of stitching so the stitches would be easier to remove after the machine quilting was done.

 The creases you see in the backing above are there because I first attempted to steam the fabric to get it back into shape.  Steam didn't work because the backing is one of my own hand-dyed backings and it had already been laundered before and after dyeing.  I did the stitching in many horizontal rows and then put in a couple of rows vertically.  I'm still hopeful that laundering and drying the finished quilt in the dryer will eliminate some more fullness, but at least there are no tucks present now.

Of course, without decades of experience making clothing and doing other hand work, I might not have realized there was a chance I could make this work, so I'm definitely glad for all that sewing I used to do.

Sweet Lurline of Lurline's Place assures me she's seen some tucks on the backs of some prizewinning quilts. I've not seen very many prize winning quilts, so I'm taking her word for it.  However, I hope this never, never happens again.  Way too many hours of angst and anxiety, and my correction doesn't look nearly as nice as Karen Marchetti's!  (And I'm sure Karen handled her little error a lot better emotionally than I handled my big one!)

I think I need to take a break and put in at least a few minutes on another project!

Sharing this on Connie Kresin's Freemotion By the River Tuesday Linky Party and Esther's WIPs on Wednesdays.

Happy quiltmaking.....