…you find out that you can make a rookie mistake. I've been working on a quilt for a magazine. It's all red and white prints, it's cute. I was about to start piecing the borders night before last when I noticed a little blood spot.
I know that your own spit is the best blood remover so I put it my mouth and tried to 'soak' it out. It barely worked so I mixed up a small bowl of water and Oxi-Clean and let it soak. That helped a lot. After soaking I rinsed the block, pinned it up on my design wall and forgot about it.
Yesterday I was about to trim the block to size when I realized that the red dots that were wet when I put the block back up on the wall had bled. Oh my. There was a lovely hot pink halo around them. What to do?
I put the block in my washer (it's big, 32 x 32 before trimming) in cold water with more Oxi-Clean. I let it soak a bit, I hand agitated it and luckily the hot pink halos went away. I pulled it out of that water and rinsed it in the sink and then washed it in the washer on the gentle cycle with Orvus Paste and two Color Catchers. I ironed the block dry because I darned sure didn't want the dye to run again.
Here's what I ended up with. The blood spot is still there, but not as bad as it was. The white in the background seems to have a very subtle pink caste to me, but there you go. I think I may be the only one who will see it when it's all done. At this point I'm just very thankful that I'm not going to have to remake the block.
As many of you know, I always wash and dry my fabric. I've used Oxi-Clean in this manner before. The rookie mistake was not checking the block as it was drying. I hope I don't do that again!
Piece O Cake Blog 
Hydrogen Peroxide will take out the blood spot. I’m not sure after all that though, but it’s worth a try.
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My mother told me (re: menstruation blood on my underware) just rinse well in cold running water. I never had a problem since.
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To remove blood, as the first commenter said, hydrogen peroxide, or Clorox 2, which contains hydrogen peroxide. Just a tiny dab of the peroxide, like with a q-tip, and then blotting it dry works for me. (You may see the blood spot “fizz” a bit.)
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As a nurse, I always used hydrogen peroxide on all the blood spots I got on uniforms while working. I never had it fail, unless the blood was mixed with something else. I won’t go into any more detail than that, because it can get really gross if I did. Anyway, Oxi-Clean works really well on those “mixed” stains and on blood alone. I used Q-tips, also, and that seemed to concentrate the product on the spot. I know that many people swear by your own saliva, BUT if you have been eating something very acidic, you can actually set the stain permanently in the fabric. I don’t do that anymore because I ruined a block doing it and had to start over, and it was a complicated block. Frown!
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See, you can learn something new every day! I dont know why Ive never heard of using hydrogen peroxide on blood stains. Or maybe thats something I knew and then forgot. Ill give it a try on the stain that remains but Im not hopeful that it will work at this point. Ive heat set it. Perhaps this experience will help me remember hp in the future.
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I have removed color by using Wisk laundry detergent. I was chastized by the quilt police but it got the dye out, which made the quilt look better.
Good luck
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Becky,
You might be pleasantly surprised AND…. then again, you might not! It’s worth a try. Even heat-set blood can be lightened using HP. Hope it helps!
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I tried the hydrogen peroxide and it helped the blood stain! I was surprised, knowing how much I ironed it. I love learning a new trick!
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i heard that the best thing was your own saliva.
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I have always used whole milk. The enzymes in the milk takes the blood out. Worth a try.
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as far as blood removal goes, i use greased lightning. it’s a spray cleaning product (cleaner and degreaser) you can find in the laundry aisle. works like a charm.
the block looks cute, by the way.
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