I do not allow any of my cats in my sewing room or my longarm studio. There is the occasional breach of security but the offending feline is quickly ushered out. Occasionally I will get the forlorn paw reaching under the door. IMHO there are too many dangers from needles to ingesting thread to knocking over the iron off the ironing board or an ill timed jump on to the cutting table while you are rotary cutting. Love them way too much to risk it.
Now my hand sewing I do downstairs in the living room. Yoshi, my Maine Coon is a lap cat and my lap is the only lap worth sitting on, apparently. When he first jumps up I must put aside what I am working on for some greetings and head scritchies. But once he curls up and settles I can sew again. I am very diligent about keeping the pin cushion and all sewing implements secured one of my sewing boxes when not in use.
My dear deceased ragdoll, Rhumba, used to love to crawl under the quilt and get comfy on my lap while I was handquilting.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]611105[/ATTACH]