Question
 

I am working on an old whole cloth embroidered quilt top. It has the little blue marks to follow for the embroidery and the quilting. It is probably 50 to 60 years old. Are there any things I should do to assure the blue marks come out when washed?

Oh, gee, I hope not permanent. The lady I am doing this for asked for it to be quickly done. It is too big for my midarm so I am tieing it!

Tatan is right, there was a time when the blue marks were permanent. The stitching was supposed to cover them, they didn't. It just became a part of the quilt. You also have time working against you. What may have come out once, might not in vintage fabric. She will just have to understand. That's the way it was.

I've done several quilts like that and the markings never came out. Also seen vintage quilts where the markings were still there.

I agree... the blue marks are meant to be covered with thread. They don’t wash out.

I have machine quilted several of the vintage emb. tops for different people. Before quilting, I explained that the blue marks probably would not come out. The response from each person was they would rather have it quilted and able to display or use it with the blue marks still there than have it sitting unfinished in a drawer or closet. Personally, I thought the blue marks almost disappeared once the quilting was done. And the owners of the quilts were very pleased with the outcome.

My sister (passed away in 2004) traveled a lot with her husband's work and to keep her busy while riding, she embroidered the quilt blocks that Walmart use to sell...,I got all those blocks, there was enough blocks to make her granddaughter a twin size, my two daughters a full size each, myself a full size and our sister a tablerunner..they all turned out beautiful...I didn't wash any of the projects till I finished them and everyone of the blue dots disappeared...Finishing them was a year ago, so they were at least 16-17 years old...I was surprised and very happy the dots came out...Good luck with yours...

This past fall/winter I quilted 8 quilts embroidered with the blue dots and every dot washed out. These were fairly new blocks at least within the past year or two.

I think the more recent blocks with blue markings wash out Its those from the 30's. 40's and maybe 50's that typically don't wash out.