Quilter7x

My friend has sheep and gives me some of their wool for my pincushions. Works great.

mighty

I use emery. You can order on etsy.

gale

I read that walnut shells actually dull needles. It's like pushing it through wood.

However, my daughter is deathly allergic to walnuts (all nuts) and if she touched an item that had been pinned with pins that had been in walnut shells, she would most likely end up in the ER or at least at the walk in clinic with full body hives or worse. That's why I never do swaps or buy from shops that sell pincushions w/ walnut shells.

quilt addict

Had no idea until now. Thanks for asking the question.

glenda

Fabric Lover, that's a regular scrubby pad. What you need is steel wool -- much finer.

QuiltingSister

If you want something easy that will sharpen pins and needles, go to the hardware store and buy fine steel wool, then cover it with a layer of muslin and stuff your beautiful pin cushion (made from orphan blocks :-) and you are "good to go" :-)

peevypat

I use sand to keep them sharp,when my daughters were small, I made each of them a pin cushion stuffed with locks of hair from their haircuts. keeps the pins from rusting and coats them with that natural oil from the hair

sarahelloyd

Never thought of the risk of nut allergy through quilting. I will make sure never the contaminate any of my work. I would hate to think that it set someone's allergy off! Thanks for the tip.

scrappy happy

I must be tired because when i read lizard litter it made me laugh, Still sounds funny, ha ha ha ho ho ha

wraez

The other day I bought a bag of 18 steel wool pads at the .99 store... they are in a cylindrical shape that reminds me of baled hay.

Pretty good price and more than I need. Thinking of making some pincushions for friends. Probably will squish 4 of them together and wrap with batt, then use scrap fabric to make a cute cover.