Removing Blue Water Soluble Marker

Well, this is a first for me. There's always a first, right?

Now I will admit I have a few faint blue marks where the water soluble blue marker didn't come out on the Breaking Up quilt. I didn't follow my standard protocol of marking, quilting, and spraying with water immediately. Instead, the marks were there for a couple hours. When I did spray, 95% of it came out. But here and there were faint blue lines.

So, the quilt went in the tub for an overnight soak. Since the quilt was wet, it was hard to tell if the marks had come out. After washing with a bit of detergent, and a few minutes in the dryer, the marks were still there. Though hard to see unless you're really looking at the quilting, I still wanted them out.

I've heard of products to remove washable blue line marks, one of which I happen to have. It's a Clover Eraser Pen, and unfortunately, did nothing. Maybe it would work better immediately after making the blue mark.

Then, some phone calls. My two local quilt shops carried nothing, nor were they helpful on removal suggestions. So much for product testing.

Next try was one of my favorite stain removers, Dawn dish washing liquid. It's my go-to stain fighter whenever tomato sauce, chocolate, mustard, or grease get on fabric. I heard quilters use it when fabric bleeds and nothing else will work. So hey, why not here?

Again, here's the picture with the faint blue lines, at the arrows.

  
Here's a picture of the same area after treatment with a 50% solution of Dawn and water.

Notice the lines are gone. For reference, the arrow in the picture points to a blue line that was NOT treated, so you can tell the difference. Amazing!

Being the somewhat lazy person that I am, I was not going to go over this quilt with a fine tooth brush to find every trace of blue line. They are very random, and hard to see. Remember, 95% came out.

Solution? Into the bathtub again for a soak in Dawn and water. Occasionally, I went in an massaged the quilt, leaving it in the bath for a couple hours. Then into the wash.

The result? Marks are gone! I'm impressed!
Again, the before:

and the after, with the blue line marked with a pin, so that I could find the same spot again.

Hooray! Here's another area that had noticeable blue lines, marked with a pin, though I didn't take a before picture.

Not a trace of blue! Sweet! Guess the secret is out - Dawn makes an awesome stain remover! So if you ever run across the blue line problem, give Dawn a try. It's worth a shot.

Happy Quilting!