Annaquilts

I buy more bobbins but I also limit the amount of colors I use. No double layering of colors here or layer upon layer. If you are into that maybe make a crazy quilt and use up all those bobbins with different colors.

irishrose

My apparel machine has multiple bobbins because it has to match and I dislike emptying and filling a bobbin. I
will wind a second color if the project isn't big and I don't have an empty bobbin available. My piecing machine uses pale lilac in the bobbin for almost every quilt so it doesn't need many bobbins. I do wind thread back on a spool for various reasons, but my quilting machine uses those on top so they are under control. When I come across old thread, I test it for breakage. If it passes, I keep it, otherwise it's pitched. I belong to the "I might need it someday" camp, but not if it's an inferior product. My grandchildren think I'm a hoarder, but after seeing that show, I know I am not. I do have too much "stuff" but it's all clean and usable!

Macybaby

I have about 25 bobbins for my main machine, and I'll try to use up the odds and ends if possible, and will only pull it off if I need a bobbin and don't have any empties to use. I almost never wind a second color over a first unless I know I won't need much thread to complete what I'm doing (Like mending).

I've gotten many old bobbins with thread on them with machines - and many, many spools of thread. In most cases, the thread is either not the quality I will sew with (some cheap stuff is rather horrid) or it's old and brittle. I've had a lot of thread I've pulled off that will break given a bit of a tug. I know make a point of removing it all off the bobbins. I have enough misc thread spools that I'll never use it up in my lifetime.

And that brings up another way of "wasting" hanging on to something and not using it - and letting it sit outside, or in a shed, or poorly stored so that in the end, something that was once very nice is now horrid.

Or hanging on to it until you die, and then having your kids throw it in the trash because they don't have the time to deal with it.

Candace

I have to know what kind of thread it is to use it, so any questionable thread (which is all thread on old bobbins) is removed and tossed. I for sure don't want to put hundreds of hours into a quilt to use iffy thread that will fall apart upon washing. Who knows what kind of thread is on these old bobbins...polyester? cotton? rayon?

And as a previous poster replied, old bobbins that have thread on them can be rusty due to moisture absorption. That old thread needs to come off and sometimes the bobbin can be saved if the rust can be sanded off. That saying "a penny wise pound foolish" comes to mind in this regard.

Rodney

When it comes to bobbins and thread I'm definitely a waster. Touch & Sews use a special 2 pc. plastic bobbin. They also seem especially finicky about the bobbins you put in them. If the tolerances are off even a little the machine WILL jam. The 648 I bought had a full broken bobbin in it. I think the thread swelled up from moisture in the air and eventually was more than the bobbin could handle. I also toss suspect bobbins. Life is too short to waste time on a distorted bobbin and the frustration that comes with one.
Rodney

J Miller

Don't mind at all.

Annies; { http://www.anniescatalog.com/index-clotilde.html } has a couple gadgets to match the bobbin to the spool. Here's the link to that page: { http://www.anniescatalog.com/notions...ml?cat_id=1556 }.

Joe

oldsewnsew

are you sure the match stick wasn't used as a bobbin? hmmmm

Mariposa

Any old bobbins I get, the thread is removed. Not wasting my time with it all~

amcatanzaro

I strip all the bobbins I get. I keep the ones I wind. I have a sewing box I keep them in.

I throw away a LOT of thread.

pocoellie

I save all my thread scraps for making thread bowls and such. You can also use them up by making a fabric collage out of your scraps and FMQ with the threads. I save all the threads in a little plastic box, think it used to be a Wipes box. I have plenty of bobbins, both plastic and metal ones.