I was several pages into this "Thread" before I realized it was an old one revived. I have enjoyed reading it, as with anything Miriam posts. The person who sews with pale lavender for her quilts has me interested in trying it. My mother, older sister, and Granny sewed clothing, and I do not recall ever seeing them buy more than one spool of thread at a time except when all the girls got new Easter dresses and the boys shirts & shorts for summer. Most of the bobbins I have were picked up by the bag at thrift stores, either hanging on pegboard or under the glass near the cash register. The treasure stores I frequent usually remove everything from the drawers of an incoming sewing machine and price them separately, placing them different places around the store. From bad experiences just like Joe described, I learned to remove the thread on old bobbins instead of waiting until I needed a new color. A video at Briansews made me a believer about not winding new thread over old on bobbins.