Talking about Pin Cushions. What's your favorite?
 

I like a large heavy pin cushion with emery sand in it to keep my pins sharp. I have four of these that I keep scattered around my quilting stations. Peavy Tailor Emery 20 oz. Pin Cushion

I like pin cushions and making pin cushions, but for daily sewing I use a magnetic dish. Can't be bothered to stick individual pins into a cushion!

My favorite one for hand sewing is one I made with black wool and a halloween jack o lantern pumpkin applique. It is about five inch round and filled with walnut shells and sits right where you put it. I bought the pattern on line. It was supposed to be attached inside a tiny milk glass bowl . But, I found I liked it better alone.
I used to sew garments alot and I loved my wrist one for that. But, like sewbizgrl I use the magnetic one for quilting and piecing.

Love the magnetic ones! I can drip them right onto the magnet.

. I use pins on my design wall a lot. I have a fabric pincushion with velcro on the bottom. It sticks to my design wall, so convenient.

I used the magnetic ones for a long time, but lately I prefer real pincushions. I particularly like the Ewesful wool pincushions, but I have a number of other types of pincushions scattered around the house. I even have a tomato one that must be at least 60 years old.

I love my gadget pincushion because it functions as so much more...it holds my phone while I listen to podcasts as I quilt,
There are 3 loops to hold my scissors, seam ripper and stiletto's. Of course you choose what to place in the loops. Sometimes its a marking pen, depending on what I'm working on. The makers of the pattern make it so much fun to put together. Below is the link to where I found the pattern. There may be a video tutorial as well.
ps. my option to attach a picture with the paper clip has an X, so I can't upload a photo of the one I made. :(

https://quiltsmart.com/gadget-cushion/

I love the gadget cushion, I made 10 of them last year for holiday gifts.

I use my wool one, it still has a bit of the lanolin from the wool in it. I don't know how they make them. It has many different colors in it and sort of looks like a cinnamon roll. Maybe compressed wool roving?
Ahh! Just did a search, they are called "felted wool pincushions, saw some neat ones including some that look like grey rocks)

My very favorite is a wool one I got in Paducah years ago. But I mostly use a magnetic dish. I love them. I don't like that one that's like a big square that supposedly puts back the pins all in the same place. I find it too cumbersome.

I got one at a retreat made in a ramekin. It does not roll away from my work area. Love it

I don't have a favorite. I use magnetic ones a lot, but I've also got one of those wool balls....pins keep getting lost in there.
Most unusual ones I use a lot - one I keep next to my fave workhorse machine is a bit of packing styrofoam. Yeah I said it. It is about
3" x 3" x 6" and it holds my stiletto, about a dozen pins, a few safety pins, my ripper, a skewer loaded with bobbins -just to keep them handy for the current project, and a needle threader stuck down with a quilting pin.

I also use a scrubby sponge loaded with pins . That is pinned to my design board with a large quilting pin. (My design board is a 4x8 sheet of insulation board covered with felt, then batting.

I love making pin cushions too.

My favorite home made one is a sweet tea cup and saucer...the saucer looks like a lily pad, and the teacup looks like a little fish-his tail is the handle. I love finding unusual cups, jars and other vessels to turn into pin cushions. Recycling lids makes cute pin cushions for the finger or wrist or a broach sort of pin holder.

Magnetic dish for me also!

My favourite looks like a dome and is filled with something kind of soft - I think it must be poly batting. It was made for me by someone on this board. It seems it's always in the wrong spot; over at the pinning table when I'm sewing or by the machine when I'm pinning. I was gifted a second pin cushion but it has embroidery on it which makes it hard to push pins through so I have to watch where I put the pins, a seemingly small thing to do but one more thing when zooming through a project. I also have a magnetic bowl but don't like it as well. Truthfully, I still don't have what I would consider the "perfect" pin cushion.

I love my Zirkle magnetic but about to make a new one that can hold my tools and clips as well just waiting for the fabric to come in

My current favorite is a small rectangular one filled with walnut shells. It's light so I can carry it around but heavy enough not to move when I set it down. I used to use a magnetic one but hated that everything stuck to it and that the pins would sometimes maintain their magnetism after leaving it.

I have my magnet nested in a tupperware. I can put a lid on for transport, and when I drop it, pins don't go everywhere. I mostly use wonder clips, but for precise seam matching, only pins will do.

I have two favorite pin chshions. A litle red one that I made two weeks ago and stuffed with walnut shells, a ribbon ties it to the back of my pieching machine. Can't tell you how handy this is. The second one is a Minion (Bob?) that I bought at Walmart and then hot glued into a metal ice crean dish from the thrift store. Bob has the honor of being the pin cushion for my midarm quilting machine. Unfortunately I had to take the machine in the house from the three season porch because it's freezing out there. Bob will get a work out in the spring again.

Mine was also a magnetic round one but it has been sent to pincushion heaven as it broke so I put it back together and it broke again but I put it back together once more. A third time it broke apart but this time it shattered. I still have the magnet but not certain what one I should make to rehome the magnet in.