I recently bought a cone of thread and have it sitting in front of my thread holder. I just thread it through and it is loose but I haven't had one problem with it. Usually I have problems with breakage with the thread, but not since I bought the cone. I didn't realize this until I read this thread! Now I'm going to only buy cones. Oh, and how long they last!!!!!

Have you tried the thread nets that go over the spools? You can buy lengths of this netting and cut to fit the spool you are working with - it helps add tension - and it works great! Just another suggestion

Thanks everyone. I think I have it now. I knew you guys would help!!

I am very glad that you have it figured out pam. I bought one of those plastic ones and had more trouble making it sit still. I thought I would weigh the bottom down with a block of wood and screw it down to the bottom of it. But, my brother made me a wooden one and it works great. I kept breaking needles using the thread in a glass method. It jumps around and gets hung up.

Now my serger took a dump a couple weeks ago and I had to buy a new one. Before trashing the old one, I removed the four-thread holder with one screw and I plan on attaching it to a block of wood to weight it down like the other one. It is great because it has four thread spools and a periscoping thread loops feature at the top of it. We will see, but I am thinking it will work great for this.

My Babylock dealer suggested I thread it through one of the tension hooks on top of my machine that is normally used to thread the bobbin for winding. (hope this makes sense) It gives me just that little extra tension on the thread as it goes through the normal threading process. Works perfect for me.

If this doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll take a pic and post.

One caution, I set my cone thread holder too far to the right once and somehow the handwheel managed to get hold of it - gremlins? and thread was wound all around - had to take machine apart and cut the wad of thread off that managed to get bound there before i even knew it was happening.

I called the MOSQC looking for a thread holder and they said they used a mason jar in their quilt shop. Just thread the machine like you always do. If it is good enough for those ladies, it's good enough for me.:)
I'll be trying it this week.

Pam, Put a bobbin on the machines' thread holder and run thread thru it then thread machine as usual. I use this on all my spools of thread. Love it hope it helps you.

great idea - that sounds awesome

I hope your thread holder is one of the heavy ones. I have one and just thread the machine and sew. The tension is taken care of in the upper thread track of the machine. The thread from the holder does not make any difference.