Peacock Pincushion

I stitched up a small motif of a peacock and decided to turn it into a pincushion.
I did some investigating online to see what the best "filler" would be for my pincushion.
I have always used fiberfill in the past, and that didn't seem to work out too well. (The cushion would not stay upright, and would not be heavy enough).

I came across a very interesting idea. Fill your pincushions with Crushed Walnut shells! I have never heard of this before, this was something new to me...
Now, where to buy crushed walnut shells? At the pet store!
It is sold as bird cage litter.

The peacock design is a freebie, and is part of a very old sampler dated back to 1742.
Colors were not listed, so I picked my own DMC colors, and I stitched it onto linen.
I do like the way it turned out, and the cushion is nice and heavy with the walnut shells inside. Supposedly, the crushed shells will sharpen your pins as you use the cushion..not sure about that, but we shall see!

You can always buy emery to fill your cushions, but the walnut shells were more convenient, and I was able to find them right away when I went to the pet store.

If you would also like to stitch up a peacock or two, here is the link for the free design that you can print out:
Free Peacock cross stitch motif


Raggedystitches,