I have a confession. I've been quietly working on a little quilting project on the side (shh — it's still a secret).

But that's not actually the confession. I realized in the course of pinning and sewing many seams that I have a thing for pincushions. I keep a long basket of them on my sewing table.

There are a couple of tins in there as well, but I don't like them as much as my cushions. Pincushions are so handy — they stand by, right next to your sewing machine or your iron or your cutting mat. They hold the pins upright, right in the position you need to grab them.

Don't get me wrong; tins are great for storage. But when you dig in to one without looking, there's the danger of sticking your finger into the business end of one of those sharp little suckers. Ouch! (That's the literal interpretation of putting "blood, sweat and tears" into your work.)

My favourites are the soft pincushions and my magnetic pin holder. I keep the skinny cushion in the small space in front of my sewing machine, so I can park pins as I sew. The squarer dragonfly one, the button-topped one (a gift from Austen) and, rarely, the old-school strawberry sit by my iron or on my cutting mat if I need overflow space. The magnetic one is always nearby, and it's great when you drop a couple of pins. Turn it over, run it along the floor, and it'll pick up even the tiniest needle you can't see.

Another handy one is my bracelet pincushion. I whipped it up from scraps one day when I was frustrated with carting cushions back and forth. I'm not quite sure how I engineered it (it has plenty of design flaws), but it fits my big wrist perfectly and never slips. The best trick: I put a couple of pieces of hard template plastic in the bottom so the pins don't stick through into the top of my wrist. Very important if you don't want to fill the swear jar while you're sewing.

When I'm finished with my little side project, I'd like to whip up some more pincushions. The more the merrier, right? These are a few I'd like to make:

• Chicken Pincushion
• Cupcake Pincushion
• Wrist Pincushion (this is how I should have made mine!)
• Mason Jar Pincushion & Sewing Kit

The best part of all of these is that they only require scraps. And each of them is so easy you can whip off a few in a couple of hours.

Hmmm, I think someone just got an idea for next year's stocking stuffers. Happy sewing!