Friday, March 23, 2012

Do Not Fear the Frixion Marking Pens :)

I'm sure everyone has heard the good and the bad about the new Frixion marking pens.  The ink flows on like a ballpoint pen and disappears with heat - either the friction of the eraser, or a touch of the iron or even the heat of a hairdryer.
The downside that quilters found, was that although the marks disappeared with heat, they CAME BACK when exposed to cold.
Of course, I didn't take this as seriously as I should have before marking green lines all over the white on white quilt I've been working on.  Oh *#*(&#  CRAP!  
Or so I thought.
I got reading around in blogland, and found one post from sorry, I don't remember where, but the writer had said that once washed, the marks came out for good.  She used Tide with stain release detergent.
So, I usually use Tide detergent, so I thought, what the heck.  I have to know if this is going to come out permanently or not.
Throwing caution to the wind, I ironed the marks away, then tossed the quilt into the washing machine filled with warm water and liquid Tide.  I let it agitate for about 1 minute and let it sit for about 2 hours.  Then spun it out, let it go through the entire rinse cycle, and then
shook it out, folded it and put it in my deep freezer!
Yup,  the freezer.
Set my alarm for an hour,  watched some free QNN quilt shows online and after the hour went downstairs to learn my fate.
When I took my WHITE quilt out of the FREEZER, it was frozen alright.  I had to unbend it to shake it out.  (Kind of reminded me of when Mom would hang Dad's overalls on the line in the winter :)  )
NOT A MARK TO BE FOUND!
Yay!!
I feel like I've beat the evil marking pen monster.
So, right now, that baby is in the dryer for a little pampering, and thawing out, before I hang it over the banister to dry completely.

I for one, will not fear the Frixion pen again.  Since I wash all my quilts before giving them to their recipient, I don't even have to change my practise.

So, if you're afraid of the marking monster - give yourself a test drive.  Make a little quilt sandwich, mark all over it, and iron it.  Then throw it in the wash with detergent.   Freeze it, and see what you get.
I hope you get the same results I got.

Happy dance!

2 comments:

A.J. Dub. (Amy) said...

LOL Awesome way to test the pens. :)
Thanks for the tip!

Michelle said...

That's great! I still haven't marked quilting lines with my Frixion pens -- too many things to try and not enough time to do them all in...