They make nice ends glued onto dowel for hanging small quilts or wallhangings. I saw a cute sewing room window valance where she took strips of fabric, tied the top to the rod and threaded the bottom end of the strip through the spool and knotted. The strips were 12 to 18 inches and the spools were like beads on the ends. Strung together with Christmas fabric they make cute Christmas garland for the tree or on the mantle. There was a thread on this board about them earlier, try the search mode for more ideas.