quilting woes

[ms.shell]

when it comes to sandwiching, pinning, quilting, and binding my quilts, i make such a mess.
I can make such beautiful patchwork. The quilt top I just made for my nephew was so beautiful on the back, with amazing gorgeous straight seams. It was a central, orphan block surrounded by 10 borders. I measured and then carefully trimmed the borders so it wouldn't get wobbly on the edges. Like I said, the completed top was beautiful and so straight and neat. Anyway, when I pinned and quilted it, it turned in to such a mess and the corners of the border wound up gathered and wrinkly and the edges were definitely not straight (more like ruffled,lol).
I have no less than 7 tops fully complete waiting for sandwiching and quilting, and this is the part where i dont do so well! At least 3 of these need finished by christmas, including my first large bed sized quilt, for my son's gift, and i am particularly anxious about the quilting of it- considering, for the first time, tying, on that one. But I am just looking for thoughts tips and ideas on how i can be much neater in basting (with pins) and (machine) quilting and finishing them.
TIA

[E.V. Lowi]

Check you local quilt stores. Some offer this service at a very reasonable price.

[HappyHappyMommy]

If there aren't quilt shops in your area that do machine quilting (there aren't in my area), there are many quilters that you can send you quilt to. I mail my quilts to a wonderful woman in New Hampshire who machine quilts them beautifully and mails them back to me.