Ladies, My little group of quilters at the Senior Center have a problem. We took the finished raffle quilt off of the frame and there were two different bloodstains on the back. Two different people bleed on it that we know of. At the time it happened we had them work on the spots with their spit and the blood came off of the top. We didn't think to look under the frame to see if the stain went clear through the top, batting and backing. One of the ladies worked at the stain with more spit today. She was partially able to remove the stain. The other lady is now in a nursing home and we don't have access to her. The older ladies insist on basting the quilts we work on with straight pins. I am on warfrin and so are several of the other ladies. I know if I get stuck I bleed like a stuck pig. I tried to talk them into using safety pins but they won't budge.
Any suggestions on how to remove the stains. I am thinking peroxide to begin with or a possibly a weak bleach solution. If we cant remove the stains the label will have more company. We may have to applique somthing over the spots.

I think the trick is to use cold water and some mild bar soap or if you can get it a stain removing bar. We have one here called Sard (I think it has eucalyptus oil in it), but any soft white bar soap should do. Use white rags (bits of towel are good) and just gently dab with soap and water and blot, then dab with plain water and blot. It is time consuming but should work. Just don't get everything too wet and don't scrub at the fabric, just gentle dabs.

I am sure everyone will have some good ideas...good luck.

Several methods are listed here
http://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Blood-Stains
and more here.
http://www.howtocleanthings.com/how-to-clean-blood.htm
I have had great success with both meat tenderizer (has the same enzymes as spit and none of the nasty stuff :shock: ) and club soda (not together). You do plan to wash all that spit out of the quilt, right? :wink: :D

Be very careful with peroxide - I've had it leave yellow stains. Can you use a dilute solution, then rinse and re-apply?

Can you use Oxyclean - it's available in little spray bottles for the purse and I have used it on assorted stains. It does not discolor. I do not know, however, if it is meant for blood stains. Now if someone had smeared Philly-cheese steak.......

#1- Dont beat the old ladies into submission if they arent quilting to your specs!

#2- if you forget about #1, make sure they are not by the quilt or still working on it.

#3- if you wrap them in a thick blanket you can beat them with a baseball bat and it looks like the fell down the stairs.

Other than that I have cut, stuck, poked myself so many times that afterwards I look like I was beat down by an angry mob. And my wife always soaked my clothes in cold water and used some sort of pretreat like Spray-n-Wash with oxi-clean and it has come out every time.

By the way there was no old ladies injured during this post and all information was deduced by watching the CSI series for the last few years. :mrgreen:


Billy

take a large bowl and fill it with milk, then take the sections of the blood stained quilt and put it in the milk. let the quilt soak in the milk over night then wash. there is an enzyme in milk that brakes down the blood.

Lots of things work on removing blood without damaging the fabric.

My favorite is Z'out; Target sells it in a spray bottle with the laundry products for about $3. You can spray it on, let it work, then rinse the spot. Repeat, if necessary.

My mil recently soaked a sweater in All to remove blood; came out perfectly! Biz also works, as does Oxyclean. The only thing I have noticed about Oxyclean is that it really needs to be fully dissolved in hot water first. When using any of these products, you want to use cold water and you may need to allow the spot to soak for awhile to give the enzymes a chance to act.

Are you sure, Billy? Hmmm...you seem to know a lot about it. I wonder if you've used #3 on old ladies in Tennessee? Oh well, as long as you don't use one of your gorgeous quilts to wrap around them before you beat them it's okay. :twisted:

Thanks for all the advice. I'll let you know how it turns out. There is one old lady I would like to gag. She is not a quilter just a critic who asks the dumbest questions. She is a little slow and thinks our little group is her private property. She has actully scared away several perspective quilters. The quilts we do are raffled off to support extra services for the members of the center. The one I am trying to get the blood out of is a sampler that was made entirely by hand by a little old lady, who was taking a class and had no sewing machine. She was one of the bleeders that was able to get her stains out. She is 86 and her skin is like tissue paper. She donated the top to the center along with another one. We secretly quilted the other top and gave her the finished quilt a few months ago. It is a shame that she started quilting so late in life. At least she will get to sleep beneath one of her quilts.