Cleaning up my mess

[Orby]

My first post but I need your help so please be kind. I might have stepped over my talent level and tried to put a custom border around what I had used a panto on and it turned out all wrong. I pulled all the stitches and did a much better job of planning and stitching the second try. My question is how do I get rid of all the old needle holes.

[RoseCity Quilter]

Sometimes a god blast of steam helps....time also closes them......

[ffq-lar]

Welcome to the chat, Orby.

Spritz with water if you're confident that the fabric won't bleed. Or else a recent hint by Linda Steller was to use a soft toothbrush to gently scrub along the lines of needle holes--either wet or dry. Good luck--as Ardelle said, time and use will lessen them.

[Bonnie H]

I use my fingernails and gently scratch at the holes. Tried the toothbrush but it didn't work for me. Perhaps a "hard" bristled toothbrush would have worked better than my "soft" one.

[Quilting Heidi]

All good advice. I mostly use steam and my fingernail.

[Primitive1]

On the toothbrush thing, I also grabbed a cheap disposable battery toothbrush and when you dampen that (again making sure the fabric won't run) and run that over the holes, it works miracles. But spritzing and steam are the best.

[RitaR]

dampen a bit and use the fingernail lol when long enough.

[Orby]

Thanks for the advice they all sound workable but I was kinda hoping for a larger scale fix. This is a six inch border on a queen size quilt. So we are talking half an acre of black fabric. Has anybody else heard of putting the quilt in the drier with a damp towel?

[DawnCavanaugh]

Orby,

You can do the dryer and damp towel method, but you'll run into a couple of issues. First, you'll want to either bind the quilt first or somehow otherwise protect its raw edges. Otherwise the tumbling action will wreak havoc with them and making binding difficult afterward. Second, keep in mind that the dryer heat could cause some shrinkage. You'll want to set the dryer on air or a very low temperature.

If you have an ironing board, the steam method really doesn't take too long. Place the border on the board, and get your iron to full steam. Hold the iron ABOVE the border and allow the steam to reach the fabric. Some irons have a "shot of steam" available too, which can help with the dense areas of holes. Rub across them gently to avoid disturbing your re-stitching.

Good luck with whatever method you choose!

[Bekah]

i usually use the toothbrush method but if you have lots of holes that can take a long time. I like Dawn's suggestion.

[Orby]

Thanks for the warning Dawn. I didn't read it untill after the quilt had been in the drier for ten minutes. Luckly The edges were taken care of and the batting held up good. Like magic though it came out looking good. Extra benefit most of the lint was removed from this black quilt.