T.O.U.C.s (Tomatoes of Unusual Color)

My sister Leigh had a birthday. She loves to sew. And I am of the opinion that one can never have too many pin cushions, so I took the opportunity to make some for her out of shot cotton scraps and felt.

They are easy and quick to make. I won’t reinvent the wheel here because there are many great tomato pin cushion tutorials already available. I looked at this one and this one. Mine are in three graduated sizes, so if you’d like to make them here are the pattern measurements:
Large 10 x 5 inches
Medium 9 x 4.5 inches
Small 8 x 4 inches

Before stuffing I filled the bottoms with rice to give them a bit of heft.

This is after stuffing and closing, but before I added the embroidery floss and felt leaves. Be sure to stuff yours tightly. Nobody likes a deflated pin cushion. When you think it has enough stuffing, put in more.

A long doll needle is very helpful to add the floss along the sides. To make the felt caps I just drew a quick star on my felt with disappearing marker. Do you remember how to draw a star? You know, like this:

Then I just kinda made the leaves a bit longer as I cut it out. I think the MS link has a template if you would rather use that. I didn’t take a picture of the tomato unders, but I also added a smallish circle of felt to the bottom that I cut out with pinking shears.

Go ahead and make some in crazy colors. They are fun to have around.