Small Pleats in Top

[Kwiltr]

So I am working on my Morrocan Vibe quilt with 2 layers of batting, Hobbs 80/20 on the bottom, Hobbs wool on top.  I worked through the quilt from top to bottom essentially ditching the main features of the quilt and pin basting.  I've found that if I'm not extremely careful and even when I am, I can end up with a small pleat of excess fabric at the end of a line of stitching maybe 6-8 inches, with a ruler, when it meets up with a ditched feature, like the fabric is being pushed.  I've been trying to counteract that by not stitching the grid all in one direction, but varying it so it doesn't do that, but while it looks ok in the end, I feel that it is being distorted a bit.  In an open area of fairly dense quilting, I'll get a small pleat when I close up an area.  I've been reading older posts on hopping foot height and it appears that 2 business cards is the max height, which is where I'm at now.  Any suggestions on how to prevent this tiny pleating I'm getting, if I can't raise my hopping foot any further?  Can I raise my hopping foot a fraction yet? Thanks for your insight on this . 

[jimerickson]

Kathy:  When I quilt, I compensate for the hopping foot pushing fabric by pushing/pulling the fabric "wave" back into place with my fingers as I sew.  Try doing that when you approach the meeting points of you SID.  I seem to do a lot of SID, and I've been doing this a long time with good results.  I originally thought it was a problem exclusive to the Ult 2 with a presser foot rather than a hopping foot, but I soon realized the same thing (perhaps to a little lesser extent, but still a lot) happens with the hopping foot on my Gammill.  Jim

[Kwiltr]

Thanks Jim.  Was going to try that...new skill to learn as I'm a 2 handed driver.  Also trying to change my motif choices to accommodate that in certain areas and to try and avoid the piling up.