Grease? on quilt
 

While wrestling my queen double wedding ring through my machine, it somehow got hung up inside my walking foot. The bottom of the foot is open exposing the gears. My quilt now has this large blob and several much smaller blobs on it. It appears to be grease. I've never even oiled my walking foot, so I guess this was always inside it and I was just lucky not to get it on a quilt before.

Any suggestions? Other than have a bawling foot stomping fit -- that I've thought of on my own. Do I even bother to finish quilting?

Looks like a beautiful double wedding ring?
..."Other than have a bawling foot stomping fit --" I'd do that anyway to make sure all the bases are covered.

What I would do is take a piece of leftover fabric and rub it on the foot and see if you can get that soiled too, then try to get it out of the scrap. You should be able to see what smears it more & what works before you try it on your quilt. Shout works well for me.
Good luck.

I've cleaned the inside of the foot completely --- I hope.

My biggest question is do I try to put something on the quilt now before I finish quilting it or wait until it's time to wash?

Goop or Dawn should take it out. Both dissolve grease and oil really well. I would smear Goop on the spots now so it sits. That is what I do when I have a greaey spot. I rub in some Goop and throw it in the laundry. Later it washes really well.

OR, you can smear on the Goop and let it sit for about 20 minutes then wash that spot by hand.

It will be several days before the quilting is finished. Do I Goop now and leave it on there while I quilt?

Either way should work. Just make sure that the spots aren't spreadable. If they are stable you can probably leave until you are done quilting.

Anyone else jump in here with other ideas, these are just mine and the ones that work for me.

Try 1 part Dawn to 2 parts Peroxide in a spray bottle. Thats what I use, it always works or me. Shout is excellant, too.

Thanks for the tips.

I use a little stick of "Exit". Have you heard of that? It is a little block of special stain removing soap for spot cleaning. I will get that oil out.

I have never heard of Exit. I will research it. Thanks.

You do want to do something right away. I use goop or dawn on grease. Stains cure with time. So the faster you put the soap on the better. It can work on the spot while you finish your quilting. Oh my heart just dropped for you

So sorry, all the suggestions sound like good ones!

full strength dawn works for me, put 4 or 5 drops and then spray with water take the part that's soiled and rub it together between your hands. But I usually do this right when the soil happens, I hope it works for you now. Good luck and don't stress.

Try Shout
Have a Blessed night
Ellen

I like Dawn and Shout as well.
Shout saved my DDs life once. When she was 3 she got ahold of a black sharpie and while I was doing laundry she was drawing great big black x's on every stair (2 story house, newish carpet). Shout and a damp rag got it out!
My father was a mechanic, i can remember my mother sometimes using crisco shortening to get that heavy, nasty axle type grease out. Apply a little, scratch with a fingernail and it would lift.

I would work it out now, the longer it is on the fabric the more likely it will set. I have heard original Dawn is good for grease. I have had good luck with a stain remover called Zout, even got out some dried in the dryer stains. Once I was able to get tar stains out of my dh pants with Lestoil which is suppose to be good for oil stains.

For motor/gear type oil, I have found a product named Lestoil works very well.

Try a drop of lighter fluid on a q-tip. My DH brought in a big black gob of grease on his boot on my light tan carpet, I put lighter fluid on an old wash cloth,took a bit of elbow grease (no pun intended) but it came out.

Oxi clean laundry stain remover worked for me when DH got some thick black grease on his shirt while working on his tractor. Just sprayed it on and gently scrubbed with old toothbrush. Grease was gone before I put it in the wash. Hope this helps

I'm off to buy supplies and will let you all know what happens.

My favorite way to get rid of grease is to use Stanley Degreaser. You have to buy it from a Stanley dealer so it is a little hard to find. Really works good though. Dawn dish washing liquid is my next favorite. Good luck, it's a beautiful quilt.

First, I'd rub some cornstarch into the stains with an old toothbrush. Leave it on overnight. Brush off surface constarch with the toothbrush and see how much of the grease the cornstarch absorbed. Then - take a bar of plain Ivory soap
take a wet, clean, light colored cloth and rub some Ivory onto the cloth. Rub the stain with plenty of Ivory. Now, you can do one of two things: 1. keep scrubbing the spot(s) with the Ivory until you see the stain lighten or disappear or
2. rub the Ivory into the stain then leave it for awhile, then do step one. Leaving the soap in for a while allows it to absorb the stain and makes it easier to rub out(it doesn't hurt if the soap dries on the fabric). After cleaning with the soap, you should rinse by rubbing with a clean, wet cloth. You can skip the cornstarch and just do the Ivory routine if you want.


Holding or placing a dry towel under the area you're working on will absorb the excess water and help it dry faster. You can also use a blow dryer to dry faster. If after drying there is a ring, that's soap residue and can easily be rinsed out by rinsing again. I find this works on 90% of stains and does very well even on oil or grease stains.

interestin, I just read on pinterest where rubbing the spot of grease with white chalk will take the grease off

Ok ladies, please don't choke when you gasp at what I'm about to say. Brake cleaner will take grease out of fabric.

I work in a machine repair shop and grease has found it's way onto many different clothes of mine -- all kinds of fabric. Before I wash the item, I spray with brake cleaner and blot and rub till it is out. Then I wash it right away. Having said that, we use it at work on car seats, office chairs, etc., and then don't wash them and they are fine, but that's different fabric than quilts. On a quilt I would use it as a last resort and then wash right away. It stinks so do it outside if at all possible.

I did not say it was conventional, but I know it works.

amh