I have only recently run out of thread on my spools. But the spool had chips in it so I threw it out.
I have been to craft fairs and such where they make Christmas ornaments out of them. Most of them were tole painted reindeer, santa's, or snowmen.
Here are a couple of sites with ideas. The first one is a hand carved Santa. I could never do that!
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php...ng_id=34943283
http://passionateaboutcrafting.blogs...ing-spool.html