I finished it. I filled my pin cushion with emery. Almost 2 cups of it. The pattern is here. When I decided to use emery to fill it I knew I would have to make little pouches for the emery to put inside the main pieces of the pin cushion. So I cut my white fabric squares 4 1/4" (just a 1/4" smaller than the main squares). They worked perfectly. The only downside to using emery is that the emery settles in the bottom of the pin cushion and the top 1/3" of each piece is kind of empty. I was surprised at how long it took me to finish this project, but I love it, so it was worth it.
Here is a picture of all the emery pieces.
Here are the blue pieces filled with the emery pouches. The blue fabric is a civil war reproduction fabric I bought on line.
All assembled with a yo yo and button top.
View from above with all the octopus arms.
