lclang

When I make scrap quilts or something with a lot of different colors I like to use up the bobbin thread I don't think I will use again any time soon. That keeps empty bobbins handy so I don't have to wind one color onto another. Also it doesn't cost much to buy a few more bobbins.

kydeb

I haven't done it but one of the treadles that I bought had bobbins with different colors of threads on them. Whoever had that treadle must have just put whatever color she needed on a bobbin and went with it - there must have been 12 or 15 different colors on one of the bobbins!!

Personally, I keep several extra bobbins handy. They are cheap and that makes it easy!

ladydukes

All the time...

quilterpurpledog

I have wound a small amount of thread on a bobbin that already has another color on it if I am going to do a small project like mending something just because it is convenient. I do it because I don't want to fill an empty bobbin and then have another bobbin with left over thread in a color that I might not use in a coon's age. I also sometimes wind the unused thread from the bobbin back onto the spool and put it back in the storage drawer. I prefer not to have too many bobbins in the box with colors I don't use too often. My 'bigger' problem is keeping bobbins with different weights of thread or thread content organized. I have put the spool and bobbin in a little plastic bag to keep the bobbins organized.

Gretchen

I use to do the same thing, but like you was told not to do that when I started quilting. The explanation I was given had to do with the tension of the thread on the bobbin when you added a new layer... and that could be true more for the newer sewing machines or just something someone in the thread industry came up with! LOL!!!

Homespun

Just buy extra empty bobbins! Then you will always have one!

Sewnoma

I guess my only worry would be at the end of the top layer of thread, if it caught up in the next layer somehow and caused a knot or jam in the bobbin.

I've never done this but I like to keep a pile of empty bobbins on hand so I haven't needed to. They're not very expensive so why not!? In the past (before I had my big bobbin stash) I would either just use mismatched thread or I'd find a mostly empty bobbin to unwind - I'd just throw the thread away. This was also when I was using very cheap thread, though, so I never worried about the waste.

Now that I use a lot of Aurifil, I don't think I could so casually throw away a bunch of it!

katesnanna

Used to do it all the time, years ago. Don't know why I stopped. Maybe because I now have around 100 bobbins. I use a lot for machine embroidery so fill at least 25 at a time with bobbin thread.
I used up a lot when sewing premmie baby tops.

carolynjo

I do it all the time because thread is so expensive that I don't like to waste any. No problem with the machines, either.

Jingle

I use to layer threads on the bobbin when I sewed clothing. Haven't done that sewing quilts. If I had the problem you had, then I would have done the same as you and pulled that color off when I was finished.