miracle chalk! AARRRGGH!

[bobbipatillo]

I was really tired of marking the basket weave template on my 1st ever customer quilt and decided to use the Miracle Chalk pounce pad. I think because I was trying to use regular plastic stencil, wiping it across the stencil did nothing. I actually "pounced" the pad with my hand under the quilt sandwich. This worked but left so much chalk on everything I gave up and went back to the blue pen to finish marking the rest of the quilt.

Anyway, I got the finished quilt to my customer/friend and after she laundered it she called me last friday and said the blue chalk did NOT COME OUT.

I suggested she try the iron since that was the other method I remembered. Still no luck, chalk is still there.

Any ideas to save this quilt?

At this time I have offered to return her money and buy the quilt back from her if we can not get it out.

[Laurie]

That sucks. I don't know what to tell you. I wouldn't have her put an iron to it if the blue pen isn't all gone. That might make it even more permanent.

I haven't used Miracle Chalk before. I use Ultimate Pounce Powder and haven't have any issues with it. One trick I learned along the way ~ I think it was from Pam Clarke ~ is to turn the stencil so that the rough side is up because it grabs the chalk when you swipe it.

I'm sure others with more experience will chime in here. Please let us know how it all turns out.....

Now that I re-read your post I have a question: How did she launder the quilt? Did she soak it in cool water until the blue marks were gone?

[ffq-lar]

Originally posted by bobbipatillo

Anyway, I got the finished quilt to my customer/friend and after she laundered it she called me last friday and said the blue chalk did NOT COME OUT.

I feel for you with this problem.

You say the blue chalk won't come out. Miracle chalk is not available in blue, only white, so I wonder what is actually left on the top. Did you mix the MC with regular blue chalk? Or did the blue marker combine with the white Miracle Chalk to leave some new product that needs special care?

She has tried ironing the marks off and also laundering them off--next step would be a neutralizer/stain remover. Try a watery paste of baking powder/water and apply with a cotton swab on a less-noticable area. Let dry and brush off.

Seems like recently (within the last year) there was a long post about removing permanent marker on a top. Maybe Bonnie or Shana (our computer wizards) can get a link to that post for you. I think alcohol was used and maybe hairspray.(?)

Everyone, please remember to never mix two products that require different methods to remove. Don't use iron-off markers with ones that are set with heat. Once the blue marker turns brown from the heat, that's all baby!

Let us know when your problem is solved and how it was accomplished, please. I am sending warm thoughts for a good outcome.

[LauraJ]

Go look at this thread: http://www.apqs.com/quiltboard/viewthread.php?tid=11543&page=1#pid110751

There are some ideas on how to get yellow out and even blue chalk out of quilts.

Good luck,

Laura

[Tamarack]

I was wondering if your friend used any products when washing the quilt that might of held the color of the blue marker. I had a guild friend mark a quilt with Crayola washable markers (they wash out great with just water) but forgot she had to wash the marker off first and put Retayne (keeps colors from running) in the washing machine and it held the marker color in the fabric. Maybe that is why it didn't wash out, it could have been the detergant she used held the color.

Hairspray is great for getting ink out of fabric so it might do the trick here.

Hope you are able to save the quilt!

[Quilting Heidi]

Miracle chalk does not come in blue. The blue powder is just chalk. I hate that stuff and have had it on my test pieces so I don't use it at all. A couple of years ago I contacted the makers of Mircacle chalk to see if they would be making it in any other colors and was told no. They also cautioned me not to mix the white with the blue powder as there would be a reaction and it would become permanent!

I would try looking at some of the ideas on the other thread, which is what I was going ot recommend. I think the baking soda paste was the one that really helped get it out. Good luck!

[Bonnie]

You would never mix bleach and powder cleaners would you, so NEVER NEVER mix two different chalks together.

Like Linda stated they react so differently that you will wind up with a HUGE mess. Now are you really really sure you used the Miracle Chalk...it only comes in white. And the pounce chalks come in different colors: White, Yellow and the dreaded Blue.

Personally I would throw out all yellow and blue chalks ever made. I would never make them again and never sell them to anyone, but they were originally made for the tailoring/garment industry and that's who they should be sold to only...the local LQS's shouldn't even put them into their stores. I can't even begin to state all the horror stories over the last 12 years I've heard regarding blue and yellow not only chalks, but markers and marking pencils as well.

If you feel you need to cut a chalk for it to stay better on your fabric or last a bit longer because you are on a budget, cut it with either baby powder or corn starch...preferably the corn starch, as some of the talc’s (depending on brand) in baby powder don't come out either, but at least you won't have a blue line just a white one.

Blue markers have to also be used with caution....they set in with heat....NEVER hit them with an iron, your doomed, but even heat from a common florescent AND guaranteed with the heat from Halogen bulbs to close to the fabric (ask me how I know that one), even the sun shining into a room onto the quilt that hasn't been washed out will almost always have the blue set into it. The heat from the car just taking it home from the quilter could and I have had it set the blue.... Soaking with plan cold water or a baking soda and cold water soak will help, but where she already put soap into the water that may have set the marks for life as well.

Heat and Detergent are the two worst things you can do to blue marks.... That and leaving them in for months or years and then trying to wash them out....won't happen.

Hope you find a solution to this...

[JoleneK]

Had a friend use vinegar this week on a pre-marked (cross stitch) quilt and this removed the marks.

[Suezquilts]

I had something similar with blue marker, dissovles with water,,, or just bleeds into the batting.

The customer washed it with a color catcher, didn't work, eventually she washed it and set it in the sun and bleached it out, sort of. She had made it for her friend, a non quilter and the freind was so happy with it, it was very faint by then, I would notice it because i knew it was there. I just stick to using the white powder, and a new marker from Moda Sewline fabric pencil, dab with damp cloth, comes in all sorts of colors.

Has anyone tried a dressmakers wax of some sort, it irons off, I love that and need some now, I found a box of it, 48, for $7, this would last me a life time.

sue

www.suezquilts.com

[ramona-quilter]

Yeah, markers are great for guiding our quilting. But if they don't come out, you are stuck.

I used the blue marker pen a few years ago. I was new and really marked over previous lines and it was too much. It was for my DIL's best friend and I was heart sick when the blue did not come out when I rinsed it in the sink.

I asked for help on this forum and I got vinegar, soaking and baking soda in the Sherry Rogers Harrison Blizzard spoon method.

I put it in the washing machine, NO DETERGENT, and let it run thru a cycle and spin the water out. Then I hung it up on my quilt hanger. (Putting it on the floor or draping over the sofa works, too.) The point is, let it air dry to see if those blue marks re-surfface. Do not put it in the dryer until all the marks are out.

I ended up putting the quilt in the washing machine (no soap) for three cycles before the marker came out. Then I washed it with Dreft and threw it in the dryer.

I use the blue marker more sparingly now. I also like the air erase purple marker.

Does anybody know how to mark Fairy Frost so it comes out. I have a bit of purple in the Fairy Frost on a quilt that I have been working on for 3 days. It's still there.

Bobbi, maybe you could offer to quilt her next quilt for free if she is a good customer. You want to keep the good will, if possible.

[Sue E.]

Pam Clarke uses blue chalk all the time and when I took a class from her, she said she uses "Sew Clean" to remove all the blue. She sprays it on and the blue comes out. This product is made by Bear Thread Designs. I bought a bottle from Pam at MQX a couple years ago but I have only used it on practice muslin. Since I do most of my quilting with a CompuQuilter, I don't need to mark my quilts but since I was practicing new techniques I used it. Worked great on my practice piece.

The phone number for Bear Thread Designs is 281-462-0661. It might be worth it to give them a call and talk to them.

[PattyJo]

Pam also sells it thru her store in Spokane. I got some when I was having a "marking issue"! It's a good thing. Here is her site : http://www.homestitches.com/

[ffq-lar]

I have Sew Clean and it works well--but it has a citrus smell and needs to be laundered out after using. It does not work on oil stains, in spite of what you may read. Don't ask how I know this!