White lines...

It all started last night.  See my previous post (or just scroll down).  I finally finished True Colors and did the soak to remove the slightly stubborn white water soluble pen markings.  Then I blocked the quilt and we left off with something that looked like this:

The quilt was looking amazing.  I was even over my self-doubt phase that kicked in earlier while I was quilting.  I was happy with it, it still had a few issues, but overall I was happy.

So I took a bunch of pictures, here's just a couple:

You'll notice a couple of things -- one being that the quilt is two different black batik fabrics.  Yes, two different dye lots one has much more blue than the other, these things happen when you wait soooooo long to finish projects.  I tried to balance the two in the most aesthetically pleasing way possible.  You'll also notice that all of the marking lines have been removed.

Well, guess what.  Things are not always as they seem...

Late last night I grabbed my cell phone to snap a quick picture to text.  The cell phone is always set to auto for the flash mode.  Here's what I saw when I went to text the picture:

OMG what is that?!!  Why are all the marking lines there.  Now this was a new marking pen (white water soluble pen available from Blue Line Eraser) that I used, but I tested it on this fabric (both blacks).  It was stubborn, but it went away.  You can't imagine what was going through my mind.  I sat there looking at the quilt with no markings on it and looking at this picture with white lines all over it!  Confusion, massive headache, palpitations, you name it, I was feeling it.  Nothing could explain what was going on, so I took some more pictures with the phone - with and without the flash:

Pure craziness, right?  I tried everything to make these lines disappear.  Most of the night I spent fretting about this.  Trying to figure out why.  The lines aren't visible to the eye, but they are everywhere when using a flash.  The worst part is many people use the flash on their cameras while at quilt shows -- pssst.... you get much better pictures with no flash - spread the word!  But could you imagine if this quilt were hanging at a show and someone snapped photos of it using their flash -- look at what they would see!  OMG, it's like the working copy, not the finished product.  I was so upset, I was retiring this quilt before it even had the chance to be shown.  I was sending it off to the special exhibit at Quilt! Knit! Stitch! (as it is already committed) and then it was going to be done.

So after a stressful night, this morning I messaged Blue Line Eraser.  And yes, I already tried the fantastic blue stuff on this - it didn't work.  I even scrubbed some areas with a Magic Eraser sponge (bad I know), didn't work.  I was ready to soak it again in some baking soda and water when Sky from Blue Line messaged me back.  Sky asked that I wait to do anything more.  Using the same products as me, Blue Line then spent the day working on formulas and tweaking and creating and doing the Blue Line things they do and came up with a solution!  They are express mailing it to me and I will have it in time to spend the weekend fixing the quilt!  I'm keeping everything I have crossed that it works on my quilt (it worked on Blue Lines test samples).  I am so thankful for how helpful they were!

Reflecting on this I'm so glad I snapped the picture with the phone or I wouldn't have known any of this. I'm also glad that Blue Line has come up with a solution, staying extremely optimistic!  I'll keep you all informed and will share the results sometime next week.  I've got to rid the quilt of the white lines and still need to get the binding on this beauty and have her shipped out by the end of next week!

Like always, sharing the good and the bad -- thanks for following!