What I was going to say - soak for DAYS! Put it in a bucket in the laundry tub and forget about it for a while.

Jacquie you are so clever and have so many good hints. Thanks.

I ordered the retro clean and it should be here sometime this week. Depending on the weather I'll try it this weekend. The instructions say it's best to soak it for 2 days in the sun but it can be done inside. I recently bought a 20 to 30's quilt and it has some stains and yellowing. I'll take before and after pictures and let you know how it goes.

I use oxyclean

I'd be interested to see if any of the colors fade or run. I have a X-stitched quilt top with mildew and rust stains. I don't want to ruin the stitching.

Right now I'm working on peroxide with a printed table cloth. I'm just putting the peroxide on the stained area. The small stains seemd to have disappeared. I'm working on a larger stain now. I don't know if they'll reappear when I wash it.

I soak in powdered Oxyclean for several days...changing the solution every day and also use more than recommended seems to work better. Then launder as usual.

The retro clean was supposed to have been shipped yesterday so hopefully I'll be able to do it this weekend or the beginning of the week. Mine doesn't have rust stains but it's all hand pieced and hand quilted to it's threads are delicate but if it's cotten thread it should be ok; it looks like it is.

Hey yall. Oxyclean worked wonderfully. I soaked all of the pillow cases and they are all pristine white and none of the embroidery thread faded at all.

Right now I am soaking some old hankies I bought for a quilt. I also soaked an old chenile bed spread with some stains on it. I don't know what the stains were but it ate right through the fabrics and left big holes in the center of the quilt, but the rest of the spread turned out beautifully. I will be using it as a cutter for other projects. I see a Chenile teddy bear in my future. Maybe a throw pillow or two.