A gathering of Grannies and a small disaster

I just can't wait any longer. I had to stitch a few Godstone Grannies blocks together to get a feel for how the quit will look. I have a plan: I'll stitch the blocks together to form five larger sections that will then be stitched together. I will stitch a large center diamond made up of nine Grannies. The remaining blocks will be stitched together for the four corners. I've started out by stitching the Grannies into rows and this will be the upper left corner of the quit. Notice I still have my block picture and number pinned to the blocks. Once I stitch these two rows together I'll get rid of them and start removing some of the basting threads and papers.

I'm still coughing but it seems to be getting a little better each day.Unfortunately I seem to have given my cold to my Mom. I know that sharing is caring but in this instance I think she would have preferred that I kept it to myself! To lift her spirits I decided to trim up and press some of her Lazy Punk blocks. She has made enough for at least two more quilts!

I had given her a Frixion pen to make registration marks on her blocks to help with the fabric placement. I trimmed up a pile of blocks and started pressing them to remove the Frixion ink. Then I came across a block and the ink didn't disappear. Odd. I tried a few more and some were fine while others were not. I took a closer look and could see that at some point she ditched the Frixion pen and started using a ballpoint pen - a disaster of sorts. So now I've got to check all of the blocks and try to clean up those that have ballpoint ink!

On the darker fabrics it isn't as much of a problem if the marks don't entirely fade but on the lighter fabrics it will be more of a challenge. I can hide some of it with quilting. I tried a variety of product to get out the marks - hydrogen peroxide, Oxyclean and Grandma's Secret Stain Remover. I also wanted to try hairspray but it was clogged up from lack of use!  Grandma's Secret Stain Remover seemed to do the best job. This is a before of one corner.

This is the after. Not great but better than it was! If I can get my can of hairspray to work I'll give it a try before I go any further!

I reckon with some sneaky quilting and a wash in the machine with a goodly amount of Oxyclean and the quilt will be fine. But if the marks are still visible we won't get too upset about it. Stuff happens and you just have to roll with it!

Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H