Friday, May 9, 2014

The Schwalm piece is finished

The Schwalm stitching is finished, and a slight hitch arose when the blue pattern done by someone I don't know, refused to rinse out.  I suspect they may have inadvertently used indelible pencil instead of rinse out pencil.  Anyway, here it is after:

one cool rinse no result
one slightly warmer rinse blue bleeding
two baths in gentle detergent no result
one treatment with stain lifter slight result
two baths with Oxyclean slightly more result




There is a distinct blue tinge, a blue area among the finest stitches. The blue bled a bit but the Oxyclean did lift the bleed and some random blue marks, too.  In person, the blue shows, but I see it seems to vanish in the photo. Click to see better.

At this point I am deciding whether to simply dye the whole thing, or some other thing.  It seems not willing to be the pure white on pure white which was the idea, for me at least.  

The teacher of the project has been very eager to help fix it, and is dismayed, since the kits were created for her and shipped, and I am guessing she also assumed the blue would rinse out.

Meanwhile, I have another design I created, which I will make up for an invitation show in July, and I plan to do Schwalm work on this so I have another shot at it.  I'll buy a wash out pencil to transfer it onto the linen, though.

On the good side, I did learn to do this introductory Schwalm work, and really liked the drawn threadwork and the needleweaving parts. And this is without doubt at this point, the cleanest piece of needlework I ever did!

Onward and upward!

5 comments:

  1. I have always been leery of those pencils - even the ones that are touted as being washable and/or fadeable. I've heard too many horror stories about the marks reappearing even years later. How disappointing that these won't come out. On the bright side - your embroidery looks wonderful!

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  2. Aw shucks! I am so sorry to hear that the blue lines refuse to come off of such a lovely piece. I wouldn't dye it though as that seems to defeat the purpose

    Imperfect though it may be is absolutely lovely. :)

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  3. Looked up Ink stain removal and found the following 3 suggestions:

    1)douse with hairspray then rub with a bar of soap. Rinse in cold water.

    2)Rubbing alcohol dabbed on stained area.

    3)Mix a paste of cream of tartar and lemon juice smear over stain, let sit for an hour or so. rinse in cold water.

    Just a thought and if any work it might be helpful for others in your group.

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  4. thanks for the commiseration and the useful tips. I'll pass them on.

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  5. what a shame re the blue, I now use colour catchers when I wash my work and I wash my fabrics before I make them into quilts etc, amazing how much colour comes out of some. Do hope the tips the help as it is such a beautifully piece

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