Spool of thread instead of a wound bobbin?
 

Ok I am hoping that perhaps someone tried this. I am afraid to do it becasue I don't want to wreck my machine!
I have a mid arm BabyLok Quilter's Pro which I love BUT - it does not have a light or indicator that shows when the bobbin thread runs out (which means of course that I end up with unsewn seams, grrrrrr).

So i looked at where my bobbin goes and there is room to insert a spool of thread. If I did that and threaded the thread through the bobbin case, would the machine draw the thread from the spool?

OR is there an adaptor that can be bought for the bobbin case that would take thread from a spool?

If not, would that not be a wicked cool idea?

I will be VERY interested in feedback!!

VERY wicked-cool idea! Wish I could do that, with my regular sewing machine!

If there was a way for a spool of thread to fit a bobbin every sewer would know about it. LOL The only way to know is to try.

I have often wished this were possible, but I don't think it would work. Larger bobbins would be nice though.

There was a machine out a couple of years ago that took a whole spool of thread rather than the bobbin. Wracking my brain trying to remember the name, seems to me it was a European brand... It was a sewing/embroidery unit and people were using it a lot for stand alone lace designs. The name will come to me at 2:00 AM, I'm sure!

About a century ago there was the "National Two Spools" machine. You can see an example of the 'spool bobbin' right here: http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...n-t179788.html

I wonder if there's a way you could have the spool outside the bobbin area BUT have it run to the bobbin, loop around maybe once, then travel along the prescribed course. It would continuously "feed" the bobbin but only with a loop, so that the thread would flow freely. I've no idea what that bobbin are looks like . . . but would this be possible?

Don't see how this would work since the needle thread has to physically wrap all the way around the bobbin in order to form a stitch. But it's an interesting idea. Surely someone out there has that of this... The less time we spend changing bobbins, or saying naughty words b/c we ran out of bobbin threead 6 feet back, the better!

Yep, scraplady is right. The top thread comes down. The bobbin hook grabs it and wraps it around the entire bobbin in order to interlock the top and bottom threads. No way to do this with the spool outside the bobbin case. And you WILL break your machine (or at least your needle) if you try to stuff a spool in where the bobbin case goes. Note that the bobbin case is also responsible for tension - so without it you'd have a rats nest of thread after the first 2 stitches (if you got that far).