i set mine in a wide mouth jar next to my machine

Me too! Love it and it works great!!

heavy cast iron and huge spools of thread, factory size.

IF your thread spool pin on your machine stands straight up - and NOT laying on it's side, then take a straw - from a soft drink from fast food place - put this on the spool pin then put your cone thread on that - it is tall enough to hold the cone there while you sew. I use them this way all of the time, with no problems at all! :>) A whole lot cheaper than the stands and easily replaced if you misplace it!! LOL

I love antiques! Soooo~~~~I put my cone in a very old blue mason jar!!! Works perfectly and I get to enjoy the jar, too!
I also sometimes rewind the cone thread on to more than one bobbin and use the second bobbin on my thread holder. That, too, works perfectly. :)

Hi. I use cone thread all the time, but I have a stand called a thread pro which stands behind the machine and feeds from a bracket at the top right to your machine. Clotilde sells them, I think. Good luck!

Love all of your solutions. Necessity seems to be the mother of invention. Luckily my machine has a double built in cone stand.

For Mother's Day my DD saw me looking at the lovely coneflower thread stands from www.paulsmetalpetals.com
She told DH that she thought I wanted one, so he bought one for me! The next year I bought another one.
Here's a picture: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...45965719NuQvWC

This is the other one.
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...45965719RNXVPG

I just went to Joann fabrics online and they have the dritz cone holder on sale for less than $4 ... I don't know if that is an online price only or if it is the same in the store.

warm quilt hugs, sue in CA

They are beautiful if you have extra money to spend. If I wasn't on a very low fixed income, I would buy one.