QI saftey

I am curious how you all keep your 'helpful' QI's safe in your sewing area.
Until now, I have not had to worry about it. My Darius kitty had decided at
the start he will only worry about checking the final project for comfort
because it is too much work to help with the rest of it, unless you are in
the middle of laying out blocks on the floor/bed then he may test those to
see how the comfort factor is coming along. Samson isn't interested in any
of it (with the exception of an occasional comfort test) so long as he can
lay near by. For him I need to worry more about my safety (tripping over
him), than his. My new kitty QI, Cheetah, is MUCH more involved than the
other two. She wants to climb on my cutting table, ironing board and sewing
machine table and I worry about her getting hurt. I can't close my area off
because it is in the corner of a dining room with no doors. I do keep
things picked up when I'm not sewing, so that isn't a concern. It is just
when I'm working on things and she is 'trying to help' that is the issue. I
do try to keep an eye on what she is doing and I remove her when she decides
to 'help me cut' or when she thinks she wants to check out my iron. Right
now she is just 3 1/2 mo. and is still very curious about everything and
very energetic and playful so I don't know if she will eventually start
finding a spot to observe or will always 'be involved'. What are some of
the measures you do to keep your helpers safe?


--
Charlotte
http://community.webshots.com/user/charh108

On Sep 7, 9:44 am, "Charlotte Hippen" wrote:
I am curious how you all keep your 'helpful' QI's safe in your sewing area.
Until now, I have not had to worry about it. My Darius kitty had decided at
the start he will only worry about checking the final project for comfort
because it is too much work to help with the rest of it, unless you are in
the middle of laying out blocks on the floor/bed then he may test those to
see how the comfort factor is coming along. Samson isn't interested in any
of it (with the exception of an occasional comfort test) so long as he can
lay near by. For him I need to worry more about my safety (tripping over
him), than his. My new kitty QI, Cheetah, is MUCH more involved than the
other two. She wants to climb on my cutting table, ironing board and sewing
machine table and I worry about her getting hurt. I can't close my area off
because it is in the corner of a dining room with no doors. I do keep
things picked up when I'm not sewing, so that isn't a concern. It is just
when I'm working on things and she is 'trying to help' that is the issue. I
do try to keep an eye on what she is doing and I remove her when she decides
to 'help me cut' or when she thinks she wants to check out my iron. Right
now she is just 3 1/2 mo. and is still very curious about everything and
very energetic and playful so I don't know if she will eventually start
finding a spot to observe or will always 'be involved'. What are some of
the measures you do to keep your helpers safe?

--
Charlottehttp://community.webshots.com/user/charh108

well, Charlotte, i dont have kitties, but my dog is always under foot.
i have tried to train her to lay only under the sewing desk and not
lay on the pressure foot. she does insist on "helping"me when i lay
out blocks or sandwiches on the floor, tho!
be persistant! they'll get the hint eventually!
amy

Lilly cat got all tangled up in the sewing machine thread one night.
Good thing the machine was in the bedroom corner and she made a fuss
and we were able to help her. Had she been in the other room and not
had help it might not have been such an ok outcome. SInce then I try
and keep covers on my machines. I even had to make a new cover for the
serger. SHe reached in the hand hold opening and pulled the thread
through there. I have the rest of the thread in a cabinet or on a
higher wall rack. I keep cutters closed unless I am using them and
hung on a key holder up in the closet. You may need to put her in
another room while you rotary cut or run the machine. I was told if
a cat touches the iron once they won't do that again. I try to keep
a close eye on kitty location when the iron is on. Mine sits in a rack
on the end of the board so most of the accessible parts of it are not
hot if a cat gets too close. Maybe if you have a basket with some
fleece in it handy to lie in and Darius might like that? It gets better
as they get older but Maki still likes to be right in the middle of
things a lot!
HTH, Taria


Charlotte Hippen wrote:

I am curious how you all keep your 'helpful' QI's safe in your sewing area.
Until now, I have not had to worry about it. My Darius kitty had decided at
the start he will only worry about checking the final project for comfort
because it is too much work to help with the rest of it, unless you are in
the middle of laying out blocks on the floor/bed then he may test those to
see how the comfort factor is coming along. Samson isn't interested in any
of it (with the exception of an occasional comfort test) so long as he can
lay near by. For him I need to worry more about my safety (tripping over
him), than his. My new kitty QI, Cheetah, is MUCH more involved than the
other two. She wants to climb on my cutting table, ironing board and sewing
machine table and I worry about her getting hurt. I can't close my area off
because it is in the corner of a dining room with no doors. I do keep
things picked up when I'm not sewing, so that isn't a concern. It is just
when I'm working on things and she is 'trying to help' that is the issue. I
do try to keep an eye on what she is doing and I remove her when she decides
to 'help me cut' or when she thinks she wants to check out my iron. Right
now she is just 3 1/2 mo. and is still very curious about everything and
very energetic and playful so I don't know if she will eventually start
finding a spot to observe or will always 'be involved'. What are some of
the measures you do to keep your helpers safe?

On Sep 7, 10:33 am, amy wrote:
On Sep 7, 9:44 am, "Charlotte Hippen" wrote:





I am curious how you all keep your 'helpful' QI's safe in your sewing area.
Until now, I have not had to worry about it. My Darius kitty had decided at
the start he will only worry about checking the final project for comfort
because it is too much work to help with the rest of it, unless you are in
the middle of laying out blocks on the floor/bed then he may test those to
see how the comfort factor is coming along. Samson isn't interested in any
of it (with the exception of an occasional comfort test) so long as he can
lay near by. For him I need to worry more about my safety (tripping over
him), than his. My new kitty QI, Cheetah, is MUCH more involved than the
other two. She wants to climb on my cutting table, ironing board and sewing
machine table and I worry about her getting hurt. I can't close my area off
because it is in the corner of a dining room with no doors. I do keep
things picked up when I'm not sewing, so that isn't a concern. It is just
when I'm working on things and she is 'trying to help' that is the issue. I
do try to keep an eye on what she is doing and I remove her when she decides
to 'help me cut' or when she thinks she wants to check out my iron. Right
now she is just 3 1/2 mo. and is still very curious about everything and
very energetic and playful so I don't know if she will eventually start
finding a spot to observe or will always 'be involved'. What are some of
the measures you do to keep your helpers safe?

--
Charlottehttp://community.webshots.com/user/charh108

well, Charlotte, i dont have kitties, but my dog is always under foot.
i have tried to train her to lay only under the sewing desk and not
lay on the pressure foot. she does insist on "helping"me when i lay
out blocks or sandwiches on the floor, tho!
be persistant! they'll get the hint eventually!
amy- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

"Charlotte Hippen" wrote in message
...
I am curious how you all keep your 'helpful' QI's safe in your sewing
area.
Until now, I have not had to worry about it. My Darius kitty had decided
at
the start he will only worry about checking the final project for comfort
because it is too much work to help with the rest of it, unless you are in
the middle of laying out blocks on the floor/bed then he may test those to
see how the comfort factor is coming along. Samson isn't interested in
any
of it (with the exception of an occasional comfort test) so long as he can
lay near by. For him I need to worry more about my safety (tripping over
him), than his. My new kitty QI, Cheetah, is MUCH more involved than the
other two. She wants to climb on my cutting table, ironing board and
sewing
machine table and I worry about her getting hurt. I can't close my area
off
because it is in the corner of a dining room with no doors. I do keep
things picked up when I'm not sewing, so that isn't a concern. It is just
when I'm working on things and she is 'trying to help' that is the issue.
I
do try to keep an eye on what she is doing and I remove her when she
decides
to 'help me cut' or when she thinks she wants to check out my iron. Right
now she is just 3 1/2 mo. and is still very curious about everything and
very energetic and playful so I don't know if she will eventually start
finding a spot to observe or will always 'be involved'. What are some of
the measures you do to keep your helpers safe?


--
Charlotte
http://community.webshots.com/user/charh108



I'm allergic to cats, so I can't offer kitty-specific advice ... but what
about setting up a nice bed for her in the corner of your room? Perhaps
keeping a few special toys in the bed (toys she can only have in the room in
the bed) that she loves to play with might help?

All QIs that I know of (canine and feline alike) love us and want our
approval. If you teach her early that she won't get mommy's approval when
she climbs on the ironing board - but she will if she stays OFF, she'll
learn quickly.

Worst comes to worst, when she gets up on the board, tell her to "Get Down,"
and take her down, put her in the basket, look very pleased and give her a
tiny treat and tell her what a good girl she is for getting down.

That is, of course, assuming that you can train kitties like you can
doggies. :-)

Winston (Mr.Cute by Polly!) has been told by Lulu that he is no longer
welcome in the sewing room! Lulu has a box lid near the doorway where
she spends her time and she will not permit him to pass her lair - he
has decided that the best spot for him to observe is from the doorway
sitting on top of a large air cleaner - same idea that he has when I
am in the kitchen, he has a tall box outside the door where he can
watch me without getting in the way. Lulu has also decided that she
has to spend her nights in the kitchen and she doesn't think that
Winston should have his eating station in there - it is a 'cat and
mouse' game for him to grab his food and run.
I have set up a spare ironing board next to my sewing machine desk
that Katie will use to be close to me - Winston will attempt to share
this space with her sometimes when he thinks that he can get away with
it - he is not so much interested in the sewing as in the quilting of
something and he does know the difference (I think that the aroma of
batting has that effect on him!) When he was younger, he couldn't
resist thread and would take off with it but I have learned to cover
the machine and remove the thread cone from the back of the machine.
I remember turning from the ironing board one evening after hearing a
whimper, Winston was clinging upside down underneath the other ironing
board - his claws were holding him through the holes in the metal - I
still haven't figured out how he had managed to get into that
predicament in the space of a few seconds. He wouldn't have been able
to extricate himself without hurting himself - he hasn't actually
bothered me much since this episode. I think that part of the safe
training involves giving your QI a place of their own and having a
sound or a signal that he/she recognizes as a reprimand in any
situation.
However, you attempt to safety train your kitten, it takes lots of
patience and repetition. Let her have other toys to distract her from
the iron cord and keep sharp items (like scissors, rotary cutters,
seam rippers, etc.) in a box or tray away from the table edge.
Another tip for yourself - check your garbage bin for any items that
might have been played with by kittie that have fallen in the bin -
before tossing the contents! I've lost several good items that way in
the past.
)


On Sep 7, 9:44 am, "Charlotte Hippen" wrote:
I am curious how you all keep your 'helpful' QI's safe in your sewing area.
Until now, I have not had to worry about it. My Darius kitty had decided at
the start he will only worry about checking the final project for comfort
because it is too much work to help with the rest of it, unless you are in
the middle of laying out blocks on the floor/bed then he may test those to
see how the comfort factor is coming along. Samson isn't interested in any
of it (with the exception of an occasional comfort test) so long as he can
lay near by. For him I need to worry more about my safety (tripping over
him), than his. My new kitty QI, Cheetah, is MUCH more involved than the
other two. She wants to climb on my cutting table, ironing board and sewing
machine table and I worry about her getting hurt. I can't close my area off
because it is in the corner of a dining room with no doors. I do keep
things picked up when I'm not sewing, so that isn't a concern. It is just
when I'm working on things and she is 'trying to help' that is the issue. I
do try to keep an eye on what she is doing and I remove her when she decides
to 'help me cut' or when she thinks she wants to check out my iron. Right
now she is just 3 1/2 mo. and is still very curious about everything and
very energetic and playful so I don't know if she will eventually start
finding a spot to observe or will always 'be involved'. What are some of
the measures you do to keep your helpers safe?

--
Charlottehttp://community.webshots.com/user/charh108

On Fri, 7 Sep 2007 08:44:30 -0500, "Charlotte Hippen"
wrote:

now she is just 3 1/2 mo. and is still very curious about everything and
very energetic and playful so I don't know if she will eventually start
finding a spot to observe or will always 'be involved'. What are some of
the measures you do to keep your helpers safe?

Everything is a toy to a kitten, and the kitten may or may not grow
out of it. One of my cats is permanently a kitten mentally, another
one learned a bad trick after he was grown due to a poorly designed
pet toy, and that trick is now a weird habit.

I must pick up all stray bits of threads, and put away all thread
spools and bobbins after sewing. My Samson thinks thread is kitty
spaghetti and will chew and possibly eat it. I have even caught him
trying to bite the thread right off the sewing machine. It is not
enough to put the stray thread bits into an open trash can because
Samson will try to dig the threads out, so I have to hide them below
other items of trash while he isn't looking rather like one throws
away a 6 year old's drawing that has been attached to the refrigerator
door for the last 6 months. His favorite "flavor" is black but he
will go for whatever he can reach. Thankfully he only chews
cords/thread under 1/8 inch diameter. Unfortunately that means he
will chew things that range from thread to silk cording, including
mini blind cords.

Samson also enjoys preforating paper. So any instructions, notes, row
numbers, etc. that I may pin to a project are subject to being gnawed
on. I use safety pins for notes instead of straight pins.

I must put all straight pins and needles out of reach of cats because
Trouble will bite anything that stands up and away from the plane it
is attached to, as if items around her must be smooth or they offend
her somehow. She will try to eat buttons off shirts, and pins/needles
off pin cushions and fabric. Usually all I have to do is put the
pincushion and current pinned project under a piece of folded yardage.
This is one of the reasons I prefer to use Elmer's Glue Stick for
applique piece placement rather than pins. I never liked getting
stuck by pins while doing applique so the glue keeps us all safer.
Trouble has also been known to bite the thread spool pin on the
machine just because it protrudes from the machine body.

Trouble also chews on plastic bags when she thinks she is hungry so I
have to keep those in closed bins most of the time. Since I like to
use large zipper bags to keep order with my projects this is a real
concern for me. The zipper bags with the slider closer are a bigger
problem because she feels the slider part should not be there and
tries to bite that offending part off the bag.

The ironing board must be folded and the iron must be placed on a
steady surface when not in use. If I forget, the cats will remind me,
usually by the loud thud of iron or board hitting the floor.

The rotary cutter and blades get put in a bin away from prying paws
and mouths. The good shears get hidden from the man in the house. The
sewing machine gets covered when not in use because of 2 cats. Current
projects are put away in containers or hidden under uncut yardage.

Cleo is my only cat that doesn't care about the sewing items. She
will only lay on freshly cut fabric stacks or finished quilts.
Debra in VA
See my quilts at
http://community.webshots.com/user/debplayshere

Oh dear!
Most cats don't give two hoots about pleasing their human! We are there
to serve them and that's pretty much *it* g
We love them, and hope they love us, in their own way; but I have
discovered that is by no means guaranteed. Fine, if their will is the
same as ours; otherwise ... ... It is no skin off their nose if they
displease us!
I have one who quite often does what he is told, but I think it is only
for the praise and attention he then gets - which, of course, he sees as
his due.
I'm afraid they have an entirely different mind-set from that of dogs.
..
In message , SewVeryCreative
writes
I'm allergic to cats, so I can't offer kitty-specific advice ... but what
about setting up a nice bed for her in the corner of your room? Perhaps
keeping a few special toys in the bed (toys she can only have in the room in
the bed) that she loves to play with might help?

All QIs that I know of (canine and feline alike) love us and want our
approval. If you teach her early that she won't get mommy's approval when
she climbs on the ironing board - but she will if she stays OFF, she'll
learn quickly.

Worst comes to worst, when she gets up on the board, tell her to "Get Down,"
and take her down, put her in the basket, look very pleased and give her a
tiny treat and tell her what a good girl she is for getting down.

That is, of course, assuming that you can train kitties like you can
doggies. :-)



--
Best Regards
pat on the hill

Debra wrote:

I must put all straight pins and needles out of reach of cats because
Trouble will bite anything that stands up and away from the plane it
is attached to, as if items around her must be smooth or they offend
her somehow. She will try to eat buttons off shirts, and pins/needles
off pin cushions and fabric.

My late QI, Blackbean, who crossed the rainbow bridge in May, ignored
the small and sharp things but enjoyed inspecting finished quilts and
sleeping on my stash of polar fleece - I think I'll be using hairy
fleece for some time to come! She also loved kneading any batting she
found lying around, so that had to be stored in oversized plastic bins.
When I was making clothing she always tried to run under the paper
pattern as I laid it onto the fabric.

Smokey our new QI who is about 9 months old is fascinated by fasteners
and fixings. His favourite game is to carry a 4" screw up our
uncarpeted wooden stairs and roll it down each step to the bottom - and
then do it all over again. He also likes occupying my cutting table, so
now he is shut out of the room when I am using the rotary cutter.
Another trick is playing with safety pins (ugh!) so I have to keep them
in a closed container AND close them as I go along while pin basting
'cos otherwise he will pull them out of the quilt!

Good luck with keeping you new QI out of too much trouble.

Lizzy

SewVeryCreative wrote:
"Charlotte Hippen" wrote in message
...
I am curious how you all keep your 'helpful' QI's safe in your sewing
area.
Until now, I have not had to worry about it. My Darius kitty had decided
at
the start he will only worry about checking the final project for comfort
because it is too much work to help with the rest of it, unless you are in
the middle of laying out blocks on the floor/bed then he may test those to
see how the comfort factor is coming along. Samson isn't interested in
any
of it (with the exception of an occasional comfort test) so long as he can
lay near by. For him I need to worry more about my safety (tripping over
him), than his. My new kitty QI, Cheetah, is MUCH more involved than the
other two. She wants to climb on my cutting table, ironing board and
sewing
machine table and I worry about her getting hurt. I can't close my area
off
because it is in the corner of a dining room with no doors. I do keep
things picked up when I'm not sewing, so that isn't a concern. It is just
when I'm working on things and she is 'trying to help' that is the issue.
I
do try to keep an eye on what she is doing and I remove her when she
decides
to 'help me cut' or when she thinks she wants to check out my iron. Right
now she is just 3 1/2 mo. and is still very curious about everything and
very energetic and playful so I don't know if she will eventually start
finding a spot to observe or will always 'be involved'. What are some of
the measures you do to keep your helpers safe?


--
Charlotte
http://community.webshots.com/user/charh108



I'm allergic to cats, so I can't offer kitty-specific advice ... but what
about setting up a nice bed for her in the corner of your room? Perhaps
keeping a few special toys in the bed (toys she can only have in the room in
the bed) that she loves to play with might help?

All QIs that I know of (canine and feline alike) love us and want our
approval. If you teach her early that she won't get mommy's approval when
she climbs on the ironing board - but she will if she stays OFF, she'll
learn quickly.

Worst comes to worst, when she gets up on the board, tell her to "Get Down,"
and take her down, put her in the basket, look very pleased and give her a
tiny treat and tell her what a good girl she is for getting down.

That is, of course, assuming that you can train kitties like you can
doggies. :-)



Only if they want to be trained!

When she is a little older she will have discovered lots more
interesting things - feathers, (hopefully not birds!) butterflies and
mouses.

Yesterday Kiwi was taking a great interest in a largish hebe bush so I
went to investigate. There, right at the top was a very worried little
mouse with the most enormous eyes. Kiwi spent the next 2 hours indoors,
and hopefully mouse had gone home when he went out again, though he
appeared to have forgotten mouse's existance fortunately.

He's still an excellent QI, but saves inspections for when they are
spread on the floor. I do make sure that everything is covered up at
night though, as cats sleep in their beds in the conservatory where I
sew. I am especially careful with pins, threads and thimbles. Hodge is
too old to be bothered and Mia says she is a good girl, so its really
only Kiwi who might be tempted, and now it is "Summer" they don't always
come home at bedtime anyway.

So if Cheetah's allowed outside enjoy the attention while you can, but
if she's an inside cat I can't help!

--
Sally at the Seaside~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk
http://community.webshots.com/user/sallyswin