Believe me, you cannot stop a cat if they want to lay on your fabrics...you just need to keep a good supply of lint rollers or masking tape on hand...when I finish a quilt for a customer or a gift , I hang it on the wash line and attack it for a good 15-20 minutes with the rollers....when it's all done, I wrap it in a cotton pillowcase to keep any new hairs off until the quilt is given to the recipient...
My cat also likes to knock my sewing items off my table and for some reason, he likes to pull the straight pins out of my quilts with his teeth ! It terrified me that he might swallow one so I have to be really careful with my pins now...when I have something pinned, I roll it up so the pins are on the inside and he can't get to them...

There is a product on the market called the furbuster by bamboo. It looks like a razor, but it's not sharp. You just run it along your fabric, and the clumps of hair just clumps up on the thing. I got mine from the animal shelter when I got my cat.

When I'm ironing my top and back and steaming the batting, I take this opportunity to use the sticky roller on them. Then it's ready to be basted. Flylady has a Rubba Scrubba that works really well for pet hair also. Hair all over is just something that goes with the territory when you have pets.

I come from a long line of pet lovers and owners and we pretty much view kitty fur as extra insulation!! And then we launder all our quilts!!

I couldn't imagine quilting without my cat. When we used to live in NJ and I sold something at a fair, it was required (at that time) to put the fiber content on the item. For instance a quilt might read "100% cotton fabric, polyester and cotton thread, 100% cotton batting" mine would read "100% cotton fabric... 99.9% cotton batting and .1% cat hair". Seriously I wash anything when it is done. If it is mine, I put it where it belongs, if it is to leave the house I wrap it in a clean sheet (or pillowcase) so it stays that way.

Another note - I used to use a ton of lint rollers until my daughter suggested I use rubber kitchen gloves (you know the kind you get at the grocery store). I put those on and rub the quilt and the hair comes off I think better than the lint rollers!

Like the other response, lint rollers, washing machines and covering up works in progress with other material are how I deal with the hair. I'd much rather clean up hair than try and keep my furry muses away from my work area. :D

I always wash quilts before I gift them. I'm a hoop quilter and my quilts get drug around alot. The dogs lay on them while I'm quilting and so do the cats. Plus, if the fabric hasn't been washed before (depending on the fabric) you don't know where it's been!

I have a high tolerance to cat hair. But I do understand that not everyone feels the same. When I make charity or gift quilts I wash them when finished and bag them up tightly right out of the dryer so the cat can't get to it.

Ditto here!!!!!! Every morning after I make up my bed I run a lint roller over the top of it. This is as much of a ritual as that first cup of coffee :lol:

Speaking from a mom whose daughter is highly allergic to cats....cat dander is the "stickiest dander ever." It takes 9 months of vacuuming every week to get rid of the dander in your home---and I mean vacuuming (remove couch cushions and vacuum like never before, curtains, couch pillows,etc.)

A friend, whose son has asthma, poor littel guy would end up in the Emergency room monthly---she FINALLY got rid of her two cats, as advised by the allergist. She vacuumed like mad and the child has never had another asthma attack since---and it has been a few years.
Sorry, cat lovers,,,,couldn't have your quits in my house.