Teach Pets To Stay Away From Your Embroidery

By Author: Rogerkane
Total Articles: 3
Comment this article

I’m dog-sitting for a friend this week. So, I currently have three dogs and four cats in the house. While the dogs are more underfoot and loud, the cats seem to cause me more work while also being nearly invisible for most of the day.

When I am making quilts, I do it in pieces. Yes, I’m sure that’s how we all do it, but I mean that I do a little bit at a time over a number of days. I don’t always secure what I’m doing, but the cats usually leave it alone. This time, I am glad that I did secure my cut fabrics because the cats did not leave it alone!

While doing some embroidery quilting, I had gotten all my pieces for another block cut and had pinned the ones together that were to make half-square triangles and Geese units before walking out of the sewing room for the day. I leave that door open so that the air conditioning unit in there can help with the cooling of the house. That night, I just turned off the AC and closed the door after making sure no cats were hiding in various spots. I never looked at my cutting table, which is weird because the AC remote was sitting on it.

Yesterday, ...
... I enter the room to get started on my daily stitching, and what greets me but this!

At first I was quite upset, but then I realized that I could just straighten out the pieces and give a quick press to anything that needed it. It was definitely not as bad as it looked!

I’ve always had cats and they have always helped me with my quilting. While it is startling and frustrating at first look, it quickly becomes amusing, and I’ve found that they don’t actually ruin anything. Usually only a quick pick-up is needed.

My late Milo used to sleep behind my machine while I stitched. As the hum of the machine would end, the melody would continue with Milo’s very satisfied purr. Beezle is my new machine companion, but to her it is playtime. She is also partial to fully wound bobbins and anything sharp.

My late Sid used to use my long-arm set up as a hammock whenever a quilt was loaded. If it had been feather-light Milo, no problem; instead, Sid was a Main Coon and weighed close to 20 pounds! This was a trickier repair to make, but no harm done! Water Lily is my new quilt tester, sleeping on any fabric that is out! What would they do if I wasn’t making quilts?

My late Izzy used to get locked up in the sewing room a lot. He could hide really well! Poor guy. He had a bladder issue and sometimes just couldn’t hold it until he was able to get to the box. He figured out that the best place to relieve himself was on my long-arm table (it was easy to clean). But, as any good cat knows, the messes need to be covered up. So, any spare piece of fabric would get dragged over the mess. He did ruin a quilt top, but it was a small practice piece. Lizzie is my new improviser. I don’t think she’s quite right in the head, but we all love her.

Like Milo, Dixie is just content to be with me. She likes to be in my lap, but she doesn’t lie down. Instead, she stands up and makes sure that I can see her beautiful tail while also head-butting me and making sure I have plenty of her fur in my eyes. She has her own special place in the sewing room that we have dubbed the Chubby Cubby. Dixie is our chubby girl. Luckily she doesn’t make hammocks of my quilts!

My sewing room has the full complement of quilting supplies. But, because I cannot bear to shoo my fur babies out, it also contains things like canned air and tape rollers! The Bodhi dog thinks the canned air is for playtime, so it serves double-duty, as do the cat treats!

So, what’s in your sewing room?

Author Biography:

With a huge collection of making quilts, Embroidery Quilting is now the perfect destination for all sorts of Quilting Supplies.Embroidery Quilter has wonderful designs and amazing variety of Quilt embroidery that will make your embroidery experience the best ever.