I must have missed something, aside from the fact that the girl did not know what a pin cusion was - but I've never heard of using walnut shells for pin cushions. Is this something new and I've been in a cave somewhere for the last 50 years or so? My Mom always used hair because the natural oils in the hair kept the needles sharp and prevented them from rusting.

:mrgreen:

It was in a quilting magazine. I'd never even heard of crushed walnut shells. Everyone I know uses sand like you would use in sand boxes but I didn't want 50 pounds of sand so I thought this sounded pretty good. :)

You can go to Hobby Lobby or some place like that and buy a small bag of silica for your pin cushions...I think it's much better for your needles...when I was in Austrailia, they were making needle cases out of wool to keep their needles in....I brought some home with me and have shared with many quilters. Make the outside of the needle case with cotton scraps and then line it with the wool...Wool has natural lanolin that keeps the needles sharp and lubricated naturally. Works like a champ!

Oh my!! I would have been LOL all the way home. I can't believe it!!

Do you mean that fine kitty litter? Think its called"scoopable" kitty litter.

No, I meant like you would use in a child's sand box.

Oh good. I wasnt real interested in the kitty litter thing. Tho, cats like childrens sandboxes, too. Bleah.

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.

hmmmmmmm, too cute