Lucy90

I use sand I got at Michaels or Joanns. Works good. I do not like walnut shells.

Blue Bell

My grandmother saved her hair but not for pin cushions. After accumulating a lot, she rolled it up into a cigar fashion and somehow, rolled it up in her hair. It made it look like she had more hair. Her hair was long and thin and she would roll it up with her roll of fallen hair.
She was born in 1892 and passed in 1980 at 88. Never had a major illness, ate a high fat diet. She would slice salt pork thin and put it between 2 slices of rye bread. She probably would have lived longer if she had a proper diet!!!!

dlf0122quilting

I use Lizard Litter from the local Pet Store. It is crushed walnut shells. I have 2 friends who design patterns for pin cushions and that is what they use.

humbird

I have a pin cushion that was made in 4-H probably about 50-55 years ago that was filled with used/dried coffee grounds. It is made of velvet. I still use it, although it is a bit worn in the seams. Don't know if it keeps the pins sharp, but it doesen't seem to dull them.

kittiebug

I use sand, works great.

LivelyLady

I have tried crushed walnuts, poly, sand, and steel wool. Out of those my favorite is steel wool, but my favorite of all are the magnetic pincushions.

d.rickman

You need to be careful with people that have nut allergies, when considering stuffing your pincushions. I use silica sand.
Available at Princess Auto, in small quantities and much more reasonable than in the Craft stores.

I make a small cotton bag using egyptian cotton (more threads per sq.inch), adding a layer of wool bat to the cotton fabric, after I have stitched down the wool batt, cut out the pattern, leave an opening and fill it with silica sand (which is glass beads, used generally for sand blasting), then hand stitch up the small opening. The wool batt helps to keep the sand from escaping from the inner bag.

meanmom

Watch putting on crushed walnut shells. There are a lot of people with nut allergies.

d.rickman

Here are some of those pincushions I gave away:[ATTACH=CONFIG]439062[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]439063[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]439064[/ATTACH]

Blue Bell

All your pin cushions are grand but I love those luscious cupcakes. They look like the real thing.