Making a Needle Felted Pin Cushion

 I collect an awful lot of tins for my reclaimed tin work and many times I find tin items that are cute but maybe a little too small or a little too special to cut up.

This tea cup for instance.  It is the only tin tea cup I have found.  The flower pattern around the bottom is lovely, but I know I will probably never cut it up.  The shape is just too interesting. 

And then it struck me the other day that I need a pin cushion for my needle felting needles.  They are always rolling all over the place and getting lost.  I was thinking about what to make the pin cushion in and then I remembered this tea cup.  Voila!  A way to combine my two interests.

I started with a lot more fiber fill than you would think would fill a tea cup. 

I pressed it into the cup and started poking, poking, poking, with my needles to shape it into the cup.  

You can see it is starting to take the shape of the cup.

Periodically, I would pull it out and check the shape and add more fiber fill to the weak spots.  And then I would keep poking, poking, poking.  

Finally, I covered the top with wool needle felting.  

Now I have a place to put all of my felting needles!