Removing Marks from Your Quilts

It seemed like those pencil marks would not show when you drew them on your quilt top. But somehow, even though they were drawn ever so lightly, there they are!

Instead of panicking, gather a few common items from around the house and give them a try.

The obvious choice to start with would be a stain stick or spray. If you don’t keep that sort of thing in your laundry room, don’t fret. There are plenty of other items around the house that can help.

If you have any baby wipes in the house, give them a try. Fold one several times then use it to dab then carefully rub the pencil mark.

Rubbing alcohol can also do the trick, but don’t pour it right onto the quilt top. Instead, pour it onto a cloth and rub the pencil marks off the quilt top.

Rubbing alcohol is also the base of a mark removing solution you can make.  Mix 3 ounces of water, an ounce of rubbing alcohol, and 3 drops of Ivory dish detergent. Use a white cloth to dab the solution onto the quilt. Like with the other options, gently dab and wipe away the liquid to help remove the ink.

If the lines are very light and the fabric is very sturdy, you can try using a pencil eraser. Keep it light, though. If you erase too vigorously, you can separate the fibers of the fabric. Once that happens, the integrity of your quilt has been jeopardized.

To totally avoid the concern over pencil marks on your quilt tops, use a pencil or pen made specifically for the task. There are plenty of water soluble products on the market.

Marks from the water soluble pens generally wash out easily. When you wash a quilt that you have marked with a pen, don’t use detergents that contain whiteners and brighteners. The sodium carbonate or sodium hydroxide that makes the laundry brighter and whiter, may also set the color of the pen permanently into the quilt top.

For marking pen lines that have been set into the quilt top, try laundering it with vinegar. The acidity in it will help loosen the detergent’s holding power to help release the ink.

If you remove your water soluble pen marks by spritzing the quilt rather than laundering it, be sure to make sure the water did not actually spread the ink onto the back side of the quilt. If you see the ink on the back side of the quilt, just spritz it, too. Dab up the excess water and ink with a clean white cloth or a paper towel. Repeat until you can no longer see ink on either side.

Blue and purple are standard colors you will find in colors of the quilt marking pens. There are also some pinks on the market.  You may need one of each color in your quilting kit. By having a variety of colors available to use, you will almost certainly have one that will show up on all the fabrics you use.

Some quilters choose to remove the notion of marking quilt patterns all together by quilting in the ditch. There is no need to mark a quilt pattern when you quilt in the ditch because you follow the quilt top seams as a quilting guide. The down side is that it can be difficult to quilt in the ditch with your machine, depending on the complexity of your quilt top.

If machine quilting, you can avoid using marking tools by stippling. Use a machine or hand sewing to tie your quilt.

© 2011- , Penny Halgren. This article courtesy of http://www.How-To-Quilt.com. You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain intact.