Stopping kitties from tossing your pieces on the floor
 

I usually put away everything that I'm working on when I'm done for the day because I know that cats are going to lay on it and get hair on it, but for those quick breaks and even for while I'm working on things I've started pinning my stacks to the ironing board so my kitties can't walk up and kick them off. Does anyone else do this?

Just be aware that SOME cats think the pins are toys and will try to pull them off.

I don't have any cats but we do have overhead fans, in most of our rooms. To keep things from being blown onto the floor, I cover them with one of my larger rulers or my smaller cutting board.

That is funny! We had a sweet dog that passed away early this year named Jo Jo, and he would pull off any little tag sticking out of a stuffed toy as if he thought it was a real animal and shouldn't have that thing stuck on it. lol...

My cats will unpin fabric and run with the pins. All the while they're laughing at me. If I've got a tissue paper pattern pinned to fabric they like to scratch and tear it up too.

no, but great idea, now if Zoey will just keep her paws off of my fancy pins

I have a couple of old bed sheets that I have cut to fit the top of my counters, and work tables. Otis likes to roll on everything , so not only knocks it around but gets hair on it, plays with bobbins, thread, pins, anything she can pick up.

My cat was bad about knocking everything off any surface in my sewing room. He would jump up to my sewing machine and bat the needle as I was sewing. DH installed a screen door going into my sewing room. This kept Puddin out but didn't cut me off like a closed door so he was fine laying next to the screen door watching me.

yes, i would just lay a sheet or large fabric over them. straight pins are too dangerous to leave out for kittens. just like babies. pretty pieces!!

Our kitties like to shread tissue paper patterns and batting, preferring polyester over cotton batting. They don't usually mess with my fabrics. But I'm sewing on the dining room table, and they know they aren't allowed there.

This is what I do and I do have cats. My kitties love to throw pins all over the place so l keep them put up.

My cat can clean out my pincushion in mere seconds.

Neither cats nor dogs are allowed in my sewing room....it has a door, I keep it closed at all times...

No, I definitely don't use pins. I put my ruler over the pieces or another piece of fabric I don't care as much about. My cats will eat the pins so I try to never leave the pins out. Selkie especially loves laying on fabric; she's very helpful!

Your title caught my eye--- Can you stop a kitty --- first thought I had is No, I don't think you can stop a kitty from doing anything! LOL Just kidding (kind of) :)

I will lay a large ruler over my small cut pieces if I have to leave the room in the middle of something. Large pieces don't get moved about but do get sat on, which I don't mind.

My friend's cat died because he got a needle in his throat. No one could see it. Put a piece of fabric over it and lay a couple of bins on top or a couple of large quilting books. Or you could shut the door. Put a board on top then put your unplugged iron on top of that.

No cats, as I don't like them climbing all over the kitchen cabinets.

Love my kitty helpers. I have two and am quite lucky that the only thing they like to do is sleep on fabric or works in progress. If I'm just leaving the room for a bit, I put one of my large rulers on top of the blocks "just in case"! And move the iron onto a nearby table where it's harder to knock off! :D

Since I do not have a door on my sewing room, I usually put every ruler I own on top of my stuff. They prefer something soft so they jump to the other table where there are placemat sized quilts just for them. They are happy and so am I.

That's funny, my cats never bother my pins! I had no idea cats stealing pins was a thing!! We're renting so I can't put up a screen door but when we own again I definitely want to do that.

We have three kitties here, and they looooove quilts and fabric and batting ... I have made multiple " kitty quilts" in a sad attempt to appease them into laying on said designated quilts, but no. They will lay all over it during construction , but as soon as I put it somewhere for just for them to lay on, they refuse to use it !

I use my large square up rulers to cover pieces on the table when I am working and need to run to another room, otherwise it is in a clear tote.

The hardest thing for me is that they can hear me turning the iron on from 3 floors away ! They LOVE laying on a nice hot ironing table ! I buy lint rollers by the case !

The thing my cats do worst is chase fabric strips while I'm chain piecing. I'm constantly batting them away. My older kitty really loves sewing machines or anything mechanical. She want to cuddle them lots. My youngest was really into my pincushions for awhile but I talked him out of that (they can be trained -- sort of). I also use books and rulers to secure things from paws, but I totally let them sleep on my uncut or sewn fabrics. I figure I'll wash them before giving them away anyways so I may as well let them get a little kitty love.

I don't have cats, but I do have a story about my dog from the other day. I was paper piecing and had to make a teeny four patch to begin using 1 1/4" squares. So I reached over to pick up a tiny square, and found that the little stack wasn't there. I searched everywhere, all over the floor and couldn't find them anywhere...until I looked at my dog, who was walking around the room with a stack of tiny squares on his head! Made me laugh so much!

My dog goes for the tag first, and then plays with the toy..

Pins out of a cat's innards is an expensive operation. Consider the fabric that cost represents. Losing a cat to a pin is even worse than blowing fabric money if you don't have to.

How about an appropriately sized, shallow plastic box with a lid with a catch of some sort? That would corral your pieces and stacks as well as anything else with pins. Only a very little of that fabric money involved. Your pin loving critter could bat at the box, sit on it, etc. and both of you would be well and happy. Well and happy are big words at my house.

Staff for 2 Ragdoll Cats

Not only cats. but if I left something on the couch or chair, my Westie always loved to lay on my work in progress,

Nibbs likes the sewing room, but has learned that it's a place to either sleep on a wad of fabric or go sit in the window to see what's happening outside. She is my shadow, so she's always where I am. Mostly she stays out of trouble these days.

My three cats are not allowed in my sewing room. I have a baby gate that locks and nothing for them to get upon inside or outside the gate, they won't jump over it.

this is what my cat used to do!

I often just cover my work with an odd or old piece of fabric or towel. The thrill of hunt is hidden from the pussy cats and the fur is on something I am not using for quilting. I had forgotten how often I do this. I also do this with my dark clothes that are waiting to be pressed. They are car magnets but covering them with something them disapear and keeps the fur on the cat and not on my black or navy clothing. :)

I have to cover my projects or put them in a storage box because my male cat, Merlin, likes to knock stuff off the table to get my attention. He can make a real mess so now I either cover what I'm working on with fabric or I store it in a plastic box. If I cover my stuff, he doesn't even know it's there, thank goodness he doesn't have x-ray vision. Both my cats love to play with pins. I've seen them take their two front paws and pull pins out of pin cushions when I made the mistake of leaving the pin cushions out. I'm thinking that pinning stuff to the ironing board probably wouldn't stop Merlin, it would just challenge him.

My screen name makes it quite obvious how I feel about my cats (I have two massively huge dogs and love them equally!) I have read waaaaayyy too many horror stories of cats ingesting pins, needles, thread or knocking over hot irons so as much as I love my babies, the sewing room is "verboten" (as is my LA studio)! However, I do have hand sewing items and thankfully they leave those alone but love to sit on my lap under a quilt if I am hand quilting.

Here is a link for all those furbaby parents who think their beloved pets won't eat these things.

http://www.veterinarypracticenews.co...ntest-Winners/

I have two cats and a studio with no door, but the cats were taught from 'day one' that they are not allowed to be on elevated hard, flat surfaces like tables of any height, desks, dressers, counter tops, or ironing boards and they're fine with that. They've never touched anything on my work table and I'm confident they never will. They're really not all that much different than dogs with soft furniture and indoor toilet priveledges. :)

ETA: I don't use pin cushions, they look too much like cat toys and that would just be asking for trouble. I much prefer them loose in a small dish anyway.

I keep all my fuzzy family members out of the sewing room now. I have a baby gate set up that technically at least the youngest cat could hop over, but he doesn't. (I think he's too dignified.) They cause chaos - batting bobbins off of tables and rolling them places I can't get to them, leaving fur everywhere, but that's not what made me finally booth them out. The younger cat developed the annoying habit of gnawing through the thread on my machine all the time and then one day about a year ago I walked in and found him chewing on my sewing machine NEEDLE! While it was still in the machine! He'd managed to poke himself in his cheeks and tongue several times (but naturally did not STOP) so there was all this bloody cat slobber on the machine and around his mouth. Scared the poop out of me and prompted an emergency vet visit! (He's fine, aside from being insane. The machine is fine too.)

I've also had to pull lengths of thread out of his throat and who knows how bad that is for him. He'll fish thread and paper out of the trash to chew on. He's like a rat or something.

So now he and his 'brother' are forbidden from the sewing room; partially for my sanity but mostly for their health.

I do miss his "help", though. He was great at messing up my work in the cutest way possible.

My helper and insane rat-cat, Zeb:
"Here, let me just put some fur on here for you, and re-arrange these stacks a little bit...and oh, have you noticed that nobody at all is petting me right now? You should probably do something about that."
http://www.quiltingboard.com/attachm...d=494597&stc=1

I have two partly feral cats that are semi-tame. I can't close my sewing room off so I keep everything covered with flannel backed plastic table cloths. So far it's working. I wish I could use a baby gate but they would just jump over it.

Yes, I have had two cats that will pull pins out of anything. Then you go looking for the pins and they are gone.

Yes, my avatar is particularly fond of rearranging my layouts too!

I was using my rotary cutter. I left it open on the cutting table. The new kitten, Parker, decided to play with it and cut his paw. There was blood on the fabric, cutting mat and the bed where he went to sit and lick his paw. It was just a small cut, but really bled. It didn't seem to bother him.

Open plan house - can't keep them out. They don't bother pins (I use flat dish) but I did catch the Siamese going chomp! on a cone of thread between the antenna and the thread guide. I cover machines now. She will also bat small pieces on the floor, and both she and the Snowshoe will sleep on any project. (They aren't allowed out, so they have run of house) The feral can't jump, but she finds imaginary stuff on the floor and I have to go find out what she is chasing.

I had one that used to sit or lay down behind sewing machine to look out window. I was always afraid I'd get her tail if I didn't move her.

The worst were the ferrets. They were caged, but if anything got close enough to the cage, they'd grab it. They'd pull as much in the cage as they could. They loved the empty spools. Freaked daughter out as she thought they had gotten a full spool of thread.