Chele, the log cabin way of making the runner seemed to work fine, but I'm not sure it was as fast as the way Debbie showed us, and I loved the look of side to side like you did. You sure got yours done fast!! :D I'll try her way too! Why not? The more the merrier. :)
I used to try to just set my larger spools behind my machine in something so they wouldn't fall over, but found out that I really needed that top loop to hold the thread so that it would unwind straight up since that type of thread is not wound in a stacked manner like regular thread, but rather in a figure eight type wind making it easy for the thread to get stuck and stop unwinding as I sewed. I made such a mess of things until I figured out that I really needed to keep that thread straight up higher than the spool! My dh designed something for me to use temporarily until I could find out what was on the market that would do that for me. My Juki is already set up for both types of wind. I love that!
I'm sure all that was clear as mud! LOL