You know, I was going to make the funky chicken pin cushions, and I got all the stuff to do it, but I also got a big bag of rice from the dollar store...a five pound bag of some generic rice, don't even know the name. It was only a few bucks, but on the tutorial I watched it said that you could use crushed walnut shells...but it has a tendency to turn your fabric brown. I don't know if that's the case, but I thought I wouldn't take no chances and just fill with rice.