Allergy to Pets interfering with volunteer longarming
 

Let me clarify: pets with hair

I am finding it very difficult to volunteer longarm. I am very allergic to pet dander. It seems most everyone has an indoor furbaby of some kind. It's amazing to me how much hair is on quilts. I thought it would be worse with a cat seeing how they can climb everywhere.
But just last week I discovered just as much dog hair on 3 quilts I agreed to quilt for my QOV group.
I had to contact the topper to let her know I couldn't work on them unless she knew of a way to remove the hair and consequently the dander. I feel so bad. I know people love their pets and this is my problem.

I purchased my longarm for the sole purpose of doing donation work. And now am finding it increasingly difficult to take in tops. Can't justify owning it for my own personal use.

I would be glad to wash them first. But that is a big no no.

So I'm at a loss as to what to do.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Will a vacuum work?

What they could do is one of several things; hang it on a line to let the wind blow off, toss it into the dryer with a slightly damp cloth dipped in white vinegar or use a lint roller all over it until nothing shows up. Only thing is hair is one thing dander is another. Dander sticks more than hair. Usually happens when the quilt tops are squared on the floor. I amazed at those who don't sweep their floor before squaring.

That's sad, when you are trying to do good. Can you first of all let it be known that you have allergies and find out about if they can be washed before hand. I wouldn't see a problem washing them before the batting was put on. I prefer to wash mine first then if I did have an issue with a seam coming apart I'll know it before its quilted.

My son in law lives with me, he can interact with my dog just fine, he can live with the cat in the house just fine but one day the cat climb up on him and he petted it, he ended up in the ER. He's also has bad asthma. So now he's careful around the cat. He can sit on the couch with the cat a little ways away, he just can't touch her. Which is sad because my cat is very old and just wants attention from everyone. Thank goodness he can't play with the dog. He's the first male that will play with her and pet her and she gets excited over that. My son never paid any attention to her, he only likes big dogs. I call my son in law my dogs boyfriend, she truly loves him.

I hope you find a solution for your problem. I really think you need to put your allergy problem out there and hopefully others can help with the solution so that they can get their quilts done.

I do mostly charity quilts and remove my cat when he jumps up on them. But if one of the recipients had a severe allergy it could be a problem. Everybody has different tolerance levels and I do feel bad for those who just can't live with pets. Sorry it is interfering with your fun.

How do you wash a top without it fraying all the seams? I tried that once early on and it came out a mess. A few seams came undone because the cloth frayed so much.

I've actually tried a mask since I have fragrance allergies as well. But having a mask on makes a person's glasses fog up.

So that's when I started hanging them out on the line for the day. The pet hair doesn't come off.

Does vinegar in the dryer actually work? And then what happens to all the pet hair? Does it end up on my clean clothes?

My DH offered to lint roller the quilts for me. He's a real keeper. But after starting one and going through practically a whole roll, he rescinded his offer. He said it was too time consuming, costly and just gross. And he's not an easily grossed out kind of guy.

On the same note: a quilt hanging at a show yesterday had visible pet hair on it. Mind you it had black sashing. But wouldn't a person clean it before entering it in a show?

I think that most people will be sympathetic to your problem if they know about it, and most of those people will do what they can to help. Therefore I think it would be best if you made the allergies known before people turn over their tops to you. It would be extremely helpful to them if you could tell them what they need to do to prepare the tops for you. If someone told me that they are allergic, I would know that my quilts have pet fur/dander on them, and I would withhold the quilt unless they told me what I should do to clean it up. I would be too worried without specific instructions.

If you can figure out what needs to be done to the tops to make them safe for you (washing? lint brush?), then you can say that you can only take tops that have been washed/delinted/whatever.

sval - if your glasses are fogging up, the mask is not sealing around your face so not doing a lot of good. You may want to get a "real" mask and I just got a new one and the flexible part is very soft and seals very well. you can get different canisters for it, as you mostly need a particulate one, but you could get a combo that also does vapors for the fragrance issue. They do take a bit to get use to wearing, as you have to breath a bit harder. but you do get use to wearing them.

Congratulations! for being a LAQing volunteer.

As you said, it is your problem ...... however it IS your health!

There is nothing wrong with stating you can only volunteer for quilt tops from pet free homes (and any other specs) and that any tops not, will be returned unquilted. Don't offer preparation options, as suggested in some of the other previous posts, as we all know many will take shortcuts, thinking you will never know. You already know ... your body will tell you! So why run the risk of affecting your own health?

Others with health issues will applaud your decision and be quite supportive of your decision. Likewise, many others will be in agreement.

Those who think otherwise ... don't waste your energy, thinking of what they think!
There are many other volunteer LAQers who will do their quilts.

Good Luck!
... and keep remembering, it is your health, and you need to take care of you, first and foremost!