Quarter Sunflower Pincushion
Here I give instructions on how to create a pin cushion from two afghan blocks made with fingering weight yarn and a 2mm hook.

My husband has been irritated with me leaving pins about when I block projects, so I created this little sunflower pin cushion! It was inspired by the pillow I made for my sister.
I used fingering-weight cotton yarn and a 2mm hook. The finished size is 3.5 inches square.
If you use a larger 5.5mm hook and worsted weight yarn, it would be perfect for a small throw pillow!
I split the pattern for the front of the sunflower square and the back of the sunflower squares for ease of reading:
Here are the patterns for:
the Front of the Sunflower and the Back of the Sunflower
Pillow fill: I made my own pillow by cutting a 4.5 inch x 8 inch piece of scrap fabric. Since my squares blocked to 3.5 inches, I gave myself 1/2 inch of seam allowance. I folded the fabric in half and sewed up two sides, flipped the pillow inside out, and ironed creases into the 3rd side to make final sewing easier. Then, I sewed the 3rd side halfway and very close to the ironed crease, stuffed the pillow as full as I could since I'm making a pin cushion, and finished sewing the side shut.
Constructing the Pillow: Connect the two squares with a border of single crochet in white.
Place 4 sc in the side of each tc, 3 sc in the side of each dc and 1 sc in the side of each sc, pushing the hook through both squares at the same time to draw up a loop. Sometimes you may want to more securely close the square by pulling up a loop through part of a petal as well as the foundation dc/tc. Stitch [sc, hdc, sc] in each corner stitch to give pointy right angle corners.




The sewn inner cushion is a useful detail, particularly for someone who crochets but hasn’t tried much sewing. This would make a lovely matching set with a fabric organizer for hooks, scissors and a tape measure. We have an organizer design in our fabric craft collection at Sewlore. I’d repeat one of the sunflower colours in its pockets and leave the pincushion separate so it can sit beside the blocking mat. Your sunflower would be the decorative part, with the other piece keeping the tools together.