I was given some pieces of fabric that reeked of some smell, couldn't figure out what it was. I washed all the fabric and the smell was still there, so I put them back in the box with a fabric softener sheet and left it for awhile and the smell went away. Have since used that fabric and no smell.

Borax will take out the smell, it take's it out of damp towels, I use to find hidden in the kid's room.

we use charcoal briquets for everything, even when our electrity to our fridge went out and we had rotten food smell, we put a pan of briquets in the fridge, closed the doors and it took care of the smell. Good luck and what a find for you.

Good to kno about the charcoal,I always used cat litter but the briquets would be so much easier!

Please read this before using fabric softners of any kind. My husband has an allergy to them and I found this on the Internet when I did research about softners. I hate to sound negative but just had to put this out there. Here's the link to the article

https://shop.sixwise.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=92]https://shop.sixwise.com/index.asp?P...n=Custom&ID=92[/url]

I mentioned this earlier---if you have a salad spinner you can wash almost anything very gently with out tearing it up---mine has a bowl that hold the liquid but some drain always ---just put it in the sink and wash away---no thread tangling ---there is no cycle gentle enough to do what this will do---can also wash charn packs and jelly rolls this way

Me too! I am buying some TODAY.
Michelle G.
El Paso, Texas

I would put them in a tub where you can separate them a bit and then in a small glass or bowl put baking soda and let set for a few days you could also try vinegar in the same manner

I don't know how or if this really works but I recall that truckers who drove "refers" (refrigerator trucks) that after unloading their meat cargo used vanilla in the refer to freshen them. As I said, I don't know for sure. Just heard this from the truckers. That must have taken a lot of vanilla because those things are BIG.

I probably wouldn't wash the blocks until they were assembled and quilted, and then I would wash with a quarter or half-cup of ammonia in the wash water. The ammonia smell doesn't last very long and I've never had it damage any fabric or dye. It's a good mildecide/mold killer and odor eliminator and it's a super cleaner of oily stains like you'd get from nicotine.

If the smell is really horrendous and you can't even deal with it long enough to put them together (I had a quilt top like that, once - ugh!) I would dip them into a solution of water and a small amount of ammonia and lay them to dry flat, handling them as little as possible.

When they're nearly dry, spray them with starch and press them square and flat. There should be no odor left in them and they'll be as nice to work with as fresh new fabric. :)