I am currently owned by three fun, feisty felines that love to "assist" with my quilting. All three were rescued from shelters here in Phoenix. Echo and Sassy came home with me on the same day in October 2009 from the Arizona Humane Society and Tyrone was adopted in November 2005 from Sun Valley Animal Shelter.
Echo is by far my most reliable helper and can be counted on to be around nearly every time there is some quilting activity going on.
He has a rather unhealthy obsession with cardboard boxes, so he is generally the first to show up to inspect a new box of fabric that has come in the mail.
He also loves to supervise the cutting and pinning of blocks.
He helps squish the fabric down so the lid fits on the container.
He rearranges blocks when the layout is not to his liking.
He makes sure that the quilting is "just right".
He checks finished tops to make sure they are soft and cuddly.
He supervises the basting, although he can't be left unattended with the pins as he has an unhealthy obsession with those too *sigh*.
And finally, he checks the finished quilts to make sure they are all ready to go.
Sassy is also a pretty good helper, although she is more selective about the activities in which she participates.
One of her obsessions is the iron and she will get as close as she possibly can without getting burned. She will often lay on one end of the ironing board while I am pressing on the other. Goofy cat.
She also really likes to help me prewash and dry fabric.
Then she checks it again once it's dry to make sure it will be acceptable for our quilts.
On occasion, she will also supervise the actual sewing.
And sometimes she is just too exhausted to be any help at all!
Tyrone is my oldest assistant and now that there are younger workers available, he tends to take it easy and generally doesn't show up for work most days lol. But here is in his glory days helping me to attach the binding to a king size quilt. He also helped sew on a label one time.