As far as changing bobbins, I use basic colors and have bobbin boxes that hold 36 bobbins for each color. That way, I never run out of bobbins to do a quick change when I run out of bobbin thread in the current bobbin. After I make a quilt, I take the time to fill up all the empty bobbins that I used and put them to the back of the box so that I use up older bobbins first. I use an electric stand alone winder to save wear and tear on my sewing machine. It also winds the bobbins tighter so that the bobbins hold more thread then my machine wound bobbins. Thankfully it makes no different to using the bobbins in my machine.