When a designer has a problem with something "sticking out" in a room, they incorporate it rather than try to hide it. Why don't you do that with the pen? Get a dark thread and quilt over it so it becomes part of the design! It will look much better. People will think it was an intentional part of the quilt and you will remember...forever...not to use pen! (Then you can laugh rather than feel badly about it. Life has too many other things to be unhappy about. This isn't a problem. Enjoy it, treasure it and make it a proud part of your design. Been there. Done that!)

Oh, how interesting to know you repair/restore quilts!! My oldest fabric is 126 yrs. old and most stash starts from the 60's on up through present! We were lucky to have a seamstress supply us with tons of scrap bags through the years as she sewed for others. DM graduated with her and we finally got around to sorting it one day and threw tons out (non-quilting stuff) and kept all the good cottons. So there's many choices in the quilts I make but I love that vintage stuff!!! So happy to have it! Yes, I survived without having to call HAZMAT in although I came close to dousing it with lighter fluid and then said NO WAY can I do that!! haha. Following on the steps of having just doused it with rubbing alcohol, I am sure glad I didn't get those two together! Or we would've been calling someone!! :D :oops: :roll: :roll:

Textiles tell so much about our history and fashion which was and still is important to all cultures around the world. I noticed the fabrics as soon as I saw the block. I restored an 1830's postage stamp mosaic quilt last year, 5,800 pieces. It was quite a job. Have fun with your vintage stash. I know you will create some fun blocks with them. What are you going to do with the piece that is 126 years old? You can pm me, so we don't tie this up.

The real old fabric was a gift to my family from a very distant relative and looks as good today as it did back then!! What fabulous work from that era! I decided to put a piece of it in every quilt I've done so far. There's only a few quilts that it's not in so I'm down to only about 6 inches left, if that much.

:wink: I put that to good use, didn't I? It was a way to give tribute to the gifter. We can tie it up if we want, it's my thread! ha. PM me if you ever need a certain scrap or color to match your repair. Repair work is one of my highlights in life, repairing everything but quilts. Keep in touch!! ;) ;) Fantastic job and patience on that mosaic!!! WTG!! ;)

Mayo_No -now you'll have oil and water and that doesn't mix. Yrs ago, I bought wedding gowns for a large dept store and the reason cheap hairspray sometimes worked is the alcohol in it- but nowadays some also have gums and fillers so make the hair hold or stand up against humidity (which is water) so that keeps it from working. We always used straight alcohol. Let the quilt dry then try rubbing alcohol- This may not work this time, depending on what else you have put on the quilt. Remember vinegar and lemon are acids and mild forms of bleach! So beware.

As a seasoned wedding and alterations manager,first line of defense for ink is rubbing alcohol.

I was trying to be funny about the mayo, lemonade and Murphy's Oil soap but some took me seriously. That makes good sense why the hair spray failed me. Did you notice my pics I posted this afternoon of the test results with rubbing alcohol! It did an excellent job and beat the WD-40 by far. I sure don't want anyone to try the WD-40 as it only worked partially until I added the rubbing alcohol and then it all disappeared. Of course, in the end I did a tiny bit that was left with Acetone. Yes, the last thing I would ever do is put acid from vinegar or lemons on my fabrics for fear destruction. First line of defense would be rubbing alcohol as the results were excellent today! check out my pics on pg. 15 (I think it is). Thank you so much, kalady! I bet you enjoyed your job in alterations!! The pros always have the answers from experience!
:D :D

Thank you so much, Phyl, for that tip! Others had suggested it too! I just preferred not hiding it under a canopy of thread no matter how creative I could have gotten with it. I preferred having it all removed; it was such a tiny area. I in no way feel bad about it. I really fell in love with this one and am so happy the ink is all gone! My love for color, art and minis comes through this quilt loud and clear. Can't wait to do another one! Next time I'll plan ahead better. It was a great learning lesson for me and it has helped many already!!

:D :D I hope it brings joy to you!!

I am happy it all came out. I am glad your other solutions were LOL - you would not believe the stains some people bring me after trying all kinds of things and sometimes making the mess worse. What a heartbreak it would have been after all that work! Hugs, Laura-kalady

I am thrilled; my mini is thrilled!!! I cannot imagine the horrible looking things they brought you to repair as some people have no clue and no common sense so they shouldn't have attempted such an undertaking! We live and learn though. Having a florist business from my home for many years, I could not believe all the disastrous looking arrangements people wanted me to 'redo' for them. It would've been better starting over! Which is what I did; tore it all off and rebuilt! Thank you so much, kalady, for your good advice! It all worked out :roll: :roll: ;-)

Some of our best lessons come from a mistake! Thanks for sharing your good lesson with us!

:thumbup: :thumbup:

You are sooo right! A mistake is just an avenue of terrific change!! It causes us to think differently about things and that's what we need!! If that potato slice had not accidentally fallen into the hot oil, we never would have had the wonderful potato chip!! And that's how it happened! Hope my mistake made others stop and think. Your welcome, Phyl!!

:thumbup: :thumbup:

I just saw this post. Fit Vegetable Spray and Wash will take out Sharpie permanent marker used by a two year old on everything she could reach, so it should take out ink. 99% of new ink pins don't have real ink in them at all. That's why the the old stand by products won't work anymore. Also mascara remover will take most dark stains out of of fabric.

Thank you, BellaBoo, for your great(!) tips!!! I use Sharpies all the time and this will come in handy as I'm always getting it all over everything! Oh, I see now why they won't work - the old methods. Probably my hair spray aerosol was just mostly water and very little r. alcohol. That's another great tip for all to remember about the mascara remover being tough enough to get the dark stains out! Someone PMed me with a remedy not presented here before and that is to take a cucumber with the skin on and rub over the stain! This is a new one to add to the list to try on scraps first. BTW, love your avatar!! Beautiful!!

:D ;) :thumbup:

OK, I confess...I'm not going to read all 17 pages of this, but I have one question that may or may not have been answered in the 17 pages....What kind of ink pen was it? Ball-point, roller-ball, felt. Also the brand-name might be helpful to keep others from making the same mistake. Whatever brand/type it was, I sure don't want to use it. Thanks for any detailed info you can give us.

well it is a lesson learned but it will bring back some laughable memories too. That is what life is lessons learned and full of. fun memories. It will be a quilt that you can pass down long after your gone.

The pen I used was "Pentel RSVP fine point" by Pentech, a purple ink pen. Please DO NOT anyone use this or a gel pen for writing on fabric. The first thing I did was to treat the stain as if it had been done with a gel pen since they are so hard to remove. A tsp. of ammonia in a gal. of warm water for 2 days did NOT remove the stain! (that was the recipe, but I used much stronger strength). It's the remedy for removing the toughest gel ink. I was sure the ammonia treatment would work. It did not. The inks are either plant based (different oils) or animal based or solvent based (kerosene). There are additives, solvents, resins and chemicals even added to some inks on the market. Some may even contain lead poisoning. Phenol is added to prevent mold/bacteria from forming in the ink pen and who knows what all else is in it. Let me say this so clearly that I don't care how fancy a name is on a bottle that says it WILL REMOVE anything, don't buy into it! Check it out first. Sometimes that is even not enough! The FDA does not require all labels to be marked with all ingredients! Some ingredients are skirted and called by ANOTHER name!! If you come across a funny sounding name on a label, do a search on the net and find out what this ingredient is all about! And finally, although our friends are well intentioned and have good advice, what worked for them may not necessarily work for us as the variables will all be different. For example, their fabric could've come from another country and their product worked great but it might not work so well on your fabric! And finally, the rule of thumb is to practice first on a scrap before trying it permanently. At least that would be the safest thing to do. Even though this happened, I was still very positive it could be removed easily. Unfortunately, it took many different products to find that cure. Well, I hope this has helped someone and thanks for asking such a good question!! It will help us realize that we can TRUST NOTHING!! Check it out first.

;) ;)

You are SO right, ftkls501!!~~I'm laughing now about dropping the tube to the can of WD-40 down the kitchen drain when I needed it so bad and then when I used it, it sprayed such a narrow hard spray as if the tiny tube had been attached to the can and was working!!!~~~hahaha. I thought it would widely cover an area; it did not!!! Who needed the tube after all??? That auto shop smell wasn't so bad after all!!! lol.

:D :D ;) The funny thing is I can't get the pen to write now even though the barrel shows it's full of ink!

I love your Baptist fan quilt, stitching & all. Try covering up the ink with a colored quilting thread. In addition, I went on line and printed the info about the pen I use for marking. It is a PILOT G-2 07. For me it always washes out first washing. If you think you will have a problem read the following about the PILOT Pen:Resolved QuestionShow me another »
Pilot g-2 07 ink pen stain?



Block User

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
Place a terry towel rag inside of the ink stain. Saturate the stain with rubbing alcohol, agitate it into the fiber and blot with another rag as it loosens the ink. Continue doing this until the ink transfers out of the fibers into both of the rags, pre-spot with Resolve, Zout, Shout or spray n wash then launder as usual with your regular detergent.


"The Terry Towel is the secret. You need something for the transfer. Just try to stay away from a pen which is marked permanent. You will never get it out. It only becomes lighter with each washing. My husband was a USPS employee and was constantly coming home with ink stained shirt pockets. Believe me ladies it works.

I remember your name. I remember you were the one who commented earlier on this thread about the Pilot pen. I can't tell you how THANKFUL(!!) I am for this info!! I love Pilot pens and I will definitely be using them from now on! I can get it also in a fine point and I love that part! You are right about the Terry Towel!! Absorbtion is necessary!! When I sprayed with the WD-40, I turned the quilt over and all the ink had been transferred to the back. It was covered with ink supposedly from all the applications of products I used! I failed to use anything to absorb it depending entirely on the product to remove it all! The Pentech pen was not permanent ink but reacted that way. Gel inks are reportedly I read unremovable but I'm sure that some of you ladies have removed gel ink before! Thank you so much for this info on the absorbtion and on the Pilot pens! Thank you so much for loving my little Baptist Fans mini and all. I really freehandedly drew the lines without being exact. Next time I will evenly space them. haha. So many have suggested to cover the stain with heavy decorative stitching but that would've meant a mirror image to be done likewise for the remaining 3 corners that each had different quilting patterns in. I saw removing the stain as a quicker solution than risking screwing up even worse by decorative stitching, threadpainting or just more HQ for each of the 4 corners.

My little mini that was stained purple is now smiling and tickled pink!
:D :D :D ;) :oops:

Good, glad to hear you had success. Love to talk to you.

Thank you, dear!! :D :D :thumbup:

Try hairspray...this usually works on ink. If it doesn't, try peroxide.

Thank you so much, spooky!!! Hairspray never failed me before til this quilt :oops: and peroxide is a GREAT suggestion!! You just have to be careful it doesn't bleach your fabrics!! :oops: :thumbup: :oops:

If you haven't put it in a dryer try an artist brush clearner. There is a package you can purchase in craft store like Michaels or Art Supply (or an artist friend) that has:
1. Kiss off to remove just about everything.
2.The Masters Brush Clearner
3. bar of Masters hand soap. This runs about $7.00 or so.
An acrylic artist pink brush cleaner that is liquid is also good.

I have successfully removed dark brown dried acrylic car model paint for a pale beige carpet. My grandson and friend used cardboard and newspaper to protect but it just somehow got on the carpet. I was visiting and ran for the emergency kit yelling I can get it out -- and I did.
It will take a little slow work but it is worth a little more time to save your wonderful work of art.

Thank you so much, Sanhope!! Know that everyone appreciates hearing your tips and experience! Kissoff is good and I know people will love having these tips at hand when they run across a similar accident like your DGS had! It's so good to know there is Masters hand soap that WILL remove it unlike so many products that have failed us quilters! Thank you again!!

:-D :-D :-D Also, welcome to the QB as we know you will love it here in all that you see and learn!! ;-) :D :thumbup:

soak it in Oxy clean and rub areas a bit too. should take it out. I got out pencil marks that were yrs old.
good luck.

I, too, like a very fine line for marking. I've been using the Fons & Porter marking pencil. It has two different kinds of "lead", one white for dark fabrics and one dark for lighter fabrics. The marks come out just by brushing...no problem. You might consider using this rather than ink. Hope one of these suggestions work. My DH gets ink stains in his pockets, so I'll be checking back to find out what works best! Good luck!

Thank you, nativetexan, so much for your great tip!! I love Oxiclean but it has failed me many times trying to get grease out of my clothes from work so I nixed trying that. It sure does get old stains out that have been in for awhile!! I know it ranks up there near the top for removing the toughest stains and it's worth considering trying!!

:-D :-D :-D

Thank you, sylviak!! Those F&P pencils are great I hear and I've surely read up on them before but I would probably steer closer toward a colored ink that's removable being the artist I am and loving colors the most. Since your DH gets ink stains often in his pockets, check out what Virginia wrote (it's on pg. 18) since her recommendations have proven effective from her USPS-employed DH coming home constantly w/ink stained pockets! Her secret key was "absorbption" and she was right! If I had applied what she suggested, I wouldn't have had to treat the 'backside' of my quilt when all the ink was blown to the back from different sprays I used, duh. We live and learn. People who live with having to remove ink stains constantly are experienced! Sure hope everyone will benefit from all the great tips here. There are just so many wonderful products out there to try but I like sticking with the 'tried and true' methods! Actually, I think the first line of defense for ink is the rubbing alcohol. It's the first thing we think about when we have an ink stain usually and a professional bridal gown restorer confirmed it's what they use first. Hope this helps you for any future spills! Thanks again, sylvia!!

:-D :-D ;) ;)

LOL - not laughing at your mistake - laughing cause I did the same thing only with pencil which was suppose to come out -- so I just called it a desgin element and gave it someone who didn't know any better - they loved it...and so did the baby......and should the quilt police put you in jail you'll have something fun to do!!!!!

Flugiepoo, you have the best answer of all! Ha.ha. I'm so glad you laughed at my booboo -- I'll probably do it again!! haha. And I don't care what the quilt police say and do!! So there! I just might make me a quilt of all ink and pencil drawings!! So there! I'll start something new in quilting!!

;-) ;-) ;-) :-D :thumbup:

Have you tried a product called "Spot Shot"? It works even on permanent marker. Just a suggestion.

No! Please tell us all about it! Can we get it in the US? All the ladies would love to know!!! Thank you, tjradj!! ;)

If you live near a Dollar Tree they sell a product called Awesome. It really is Awesome. I've had it take out ink before even on set in ink and stains. Give that a try.

Yes, I'm very close to a Dollar Tree! Thank you so much, Jennifer!! I want to try some of that! I had heard it was great!!

:-D :-D ;)

could you do a decorative stitch over the top of it to hide it? It would be a lot ofwork, but beautiful when done.

Let us know if anything works. I just hate the idea of your lovely quilt being spoiled.

Oh, thank you, dear!! I got it all out with rubbing alcohol -- the first line of defense for removing ink stains! I did a test of products on 3 samples (pics are on pg. 16) showing RA was the winner!!! It removed the majority of ink and my mini looks like it never went through the wringer!! haha. It's happy today smiling and tickled pink!! haha.

:D :-) :D

I think it would be beautiful too! I sure wish I could do that but my machine could not handle it. I have the decorative stitches but the stitch length is broken. It would eat it up! Thank you, Kathy N! That suggestion is a good one and I love the threadart or threadpainting!

:-D :-D ;)

Have you tryed Grandma's Secert Spot remover? It gets ink out of my clothes.

http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/p...RODID=prd37971