First of all, Crafty, I think this is a marvelous idea for a tread! A couple of my ideas are:
1. Adhere a strip of craft magnet (the wide one with adhesive on one side) onto your sewing machine. When removing pins while sewing it's easy to drop the pin in the direction of the magnet and it's there! Much faster than searching for a pin cushion and you'll also have pins handy right where you need them.
2. Have a little fabric left over when cutting for a project? Cut a 1-1/2 inch or 2-1/2 strip and place in box or drawer to have ready to use when you want to do a project that calls for a strip.(works especially well if you do log cabin or nine patch blocks) I like to have two containers for each size; one for light colors and another for darks.