Ok, I was wondering.. what does everyone do with the empty spools? I tossed three yesterday and kept thinking I wonder what could be done with these..surely art projects? I know recycle to the end.. but someone was requesting them for a science project in the classifieds and it made me think maybe there are ideas. Post them so we can all rethink our tosses of all those wonderful little spools!

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

Those links both show wooden spools. I didn't even know they still made wooden spools. What brand of thread uses wood?

I toss them to my cats. They roll on the floor nicely and they enjoy them. Sometimes the dog gets in on it by fetching for the cats :-D

Yep! Cat toys!!!

My boyfriend has a pet quail so I figured he could play with that (the quail, not the bf). Well, the quail didn't quite get it. So now the bf blows through the spool (it's an aurifil) and makes this whistling sound that irritates the quail. He (bf now) loves it...

LOL, poor quail.

I must admit that I've been saving them. so far I have two of the little bitty ones that come in travel sewing cases. I am positive they are good for something. I'll be watching this thread to see what you all come up with.

our childrens program couldn't do a project because we couldn't find wooden spools. We used to make a knitted cord using them to knit it. Anyone remenber these from the old days?

ok to sound incredibly dumb here why couldnt you use the plastic ones? spray painted they are any color you want.. Cat toys tried it they love them with the thread on them then I chase the string down all over the place til I find the darned thing. I have lots of kitty helpers when I sew. GRRR. I am thinking there are some lot more crafty crafters here who might have a few more ideas.. come on.. we must have 10 million between us easily.

Well, with the wooden ones, I have seen them strung and made into puppet dolls.. I have seen doll beds and chairs made of them. I used to wind my embroidery thread on them.for the knitting project you take a large wooden spool and tap 4 "headless" or brad type nails into the top and use them to crochet "cords" for projects.

My children used to love the wooden ones when they were little. They would string them for "jewelry" and stack them like blocks. My son used them with his cars for roads and fences. They made some ornaments out of them. I started to save the foam ones for my grandchildren and then I decided not to because of the way the end of the spools can pull off, I think it would be a choking risk.

Margie

i giave them to a preschool teacher and she lets the kids thread them with long colorful shoe laces. hand eye co-ordination..

I save all of my spools and thread them on heavy cording and when I have quite a few tie the ends of the cording together. My grandson loved to play with them with he was younger. He still has them in his toy box and loves to take them out and play.

Can't think of the brand, but it's hand work thread. It has a coating on it (wax?) so it does not work in my machine... at all... but it's a stiffer thread for handwork. And the spools are wood.

I have some old spools from my mother and grandmother...the wooden ones, I hate to toss them, but do neeed something creative to do with them. I have made dolls with miniature wooden ones that are available at craft stores, but no ideas for the antique wooden ones. Glad this thread got started. Maybe I can get some ideas.

50 years ago, the wooden spools were added to the block box and the boys loved building with them. I can't believe that those years just flew by.

I still have some wooden thread spools and they have thread on them, I don't use the thread and will some day take the thread off and keep the spools and not use them for anything.

I have a couple 1000 wooden spools in the attic. I've made a few things from them. I'd like to sell them someday. I've got enough projects with them.

They are one of the things that I can throw away without a second thought! Snips of fabric, magazines with "someday" patterns, etc., I have trouble parting with.

I'm making a concerted effort to get rid of "things" that clutter my life and drain my energy and creativity, so anything I can toss without thinking of possible uses is wonderful.

I toss mine out.

They make those knitters out of plastic now. Just saw them on the notions wall at Walmart.

Young generation - link?? :?:

I keep my wood spools in a large jar in my sewing room. I have used them to wind thread on for the serger (needle) when I didn't need a lot that color. I don't keep the plastic spools.

I save mine for my Guild's quilt show, a prize is awared to the person who guesses how many empty thread spools are in a huge jar. This can be very challenging as the size of the spools varies from tiny to huge. Each year the gal in charge of this contest hunts for the largest clear jar or container she can find.

Stashbusters has a challenge to record the number of yards of thread we use up this year. So this year I'm doing double duty with my empty spools. I'll probably forget about doing this sometime mid year.

I also remember on school teacher asking for them on the quitling message boards. So they do have a purpose in their after life. May in Jersey

You can even find new versions of that one. Kept me busy for hours when I was a kid.

Glue the spools together so that there are 4 in the bottom row, 3 in the next, 2 in the next, 1 in the next. Glue the rows together. Take two more spools and glue them one on top of the other. Glue them on the bottom in the middle. Get a wooden star and put it on the top of the row with 1. Make bows from narrow strips of your quilting fabrics and glue them wherever you want on the spools.

Voila! you have a "quilter's Christmas Tree" You can make these for gifts!

I have one that I bought at a craft show many years ago. It is my favorite Christmas Decoration!

OmaForFour
(Yes, I have 4 grandchildren!)

The Quilter's Christmas Tree requires wooden spools also. Sorry about that.

I would love to buy ALL of them from you. Please advise how I might contact you and find out a price for them.

OmaForFour

I put a message in the general area. Then I discovered I might want to put a message with a quote (I am fairly new at this). Anyway, I would like to buy all your spools. How can I get in contact with you to negotiate this?
OmaForFour

Men (boys) can be so easily entertained... :lol:
As for mine.....cat toys here also.
However back when they use to be wooden I would see them used at craft fairs as arms and legs for cloth made dolls.

Love that idea. Thanks for sharing.

our guild at the last quilt show, strung the spools and used to block the different sections from one another.......

looked really cute

DID YOU SEE THIS THREAD ON THE BUY/SELL/TRADE COLUMN ?

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-37333-1.htm

I give my empty spools to my parrot to play with. He loves to chew them.

Just thought of this, and I don't even know that it would work, but you could string several spools on a piece of thin rope. Spread peanut butter on the middle parts of the spools and roll in bird seed. Hang from a tree and make some birds happy. They'll be able to land and hang on to the bases of the spools. I suppose you could glue some small dowels to the bases so they had a better perch though.

I use them to make a garland for my christmas tree. String them with a wooden ball in between. Use your thread clippings to put into clear glass balls for decorations and you can have a beautiful tree!

Use left over batting and fabric and wrap to make funky beads for necklaces. string with deco yarn or ribbon.

I had a friend that is very much into model trains. I used to give him my empty spools and he made scenery bits with them. He turned serger cones into trees, smaller spools into fencing, etc.

And yes, I remember the wooden spools being used for "French knitting"...I still have mine from when I was a girl. ;)

Patti

I save all of mine, partly because of sentimentality. When I was a child in the 1940's we had very few toys due to the war & poor family. I would spend hours building houses, castles, etc with the empty spools, I loved those spools.
My children played with them & now grandchildren also play with them or string them on yarn for a necklace. True, they don't play with them as much as I did as a child but it thrils me when they do.