So Whats With The Tomato Pin Cushion

 My first blog post … overwhelming, intimidating, and terrifying. To all 6 of you reading this … thank you.

Over the last few months I have taught grownups, teenagers, and children. Hopefully passing on a few basic skills but more importantly the love of sewing. As I do all of this, I remember the lady that taught me to sew and how all the questions you have asked me I asked her and how she patiently answered each one.
From as far back as I can remember she had red tomato pin cushions. She had one on her sewing table and one on her wrist that had a hard plastic cuff that made it a bracelet. As a little girl I knew that someday when I was as good at sewing as she was I would have a pin cushion bracelet too.

Now all these years later I love the nostalgia of the tomato pin cushion. Everyone who has ever sewn has one ... our Grandmothers, mothers, aunts, literally everybody, and I wondered why. Well, according to folklore people once thought the tomato was a symbol of good fortune and prosperity so when people moved into a new home they placed a tomato on the mantle. Since tomatoes are only seasonal, the ladies would create them from fabric and fill them with leaves and things from the outdoors. During this same era the ladies did all the sewing for their families and their hand needles were very important, so they placed their important hand needle in their fabric “good luck” tomato and the tomato pin cushion was born.

We never know the everyday things that we do that will mean so much to those who come behind us. When I think of the pin cushion, I see my grandmother’s wrinkled hands, with the bright red tomato on her wrist, teaching me how to sew. I was in complete awe of her and I can still hear her saying “It will be perfect, I promise.”

The tomato may not bring prosperity and good fortune but it definitely brings back lots of happy memories to those of us who sew and to those who love someone who sews.

Until next time…

Sew on and Sew Forth
Tami