How about calling the local 'assisted living' home and see if they can use them in their crafts for the elderly. Also contact a local day care center.

I save the wood spools. I have an old table that was my
Mother's that is made with the legs of wooden spools. When we were kids, we used to make cars out of spools and rubber bands. Oh, does that make me feel OLD.

We have at least one teacher in our elementary school who finds uses for everything you can think of for her students for art classes, etc., so I give them to her.

My Sister is an Art teacher and she often uses stuff like spools. She finds them at a local "recycle center" which has all sort of art supplies and such. She is in Providence RI. I think it would be worth contacting your local schools, public and private. With all the cuts in budgets, things like spools with instructions would be very very welcome

Well, heck, either do I have the room - LOL - but I do toss them into the corner of a small box of material - actually old cotton clothes that I save for "recycling" when I cannot afford new stash.

As little kids, we used to make necklaces out of the spools, threaded on shoelaces... I've seen some scarves made of them and a strip of material... but that was about 15 or so years ago...

I have also seen them as "feet" for a decorative box. I believe the plastic ones can be painted with acrylics.

Artists do create with castoffs.

Never thought about all the things others could do with them. Thanks for asking this question and all the answers!

I toss them on the floor for the kitties to play with. After a few days they end up under the furniture, and the next time I move the furniture to clean, I pick them all up and throw them away.

someone else on the board brought this up some time ago. One lady gave to Senior citizens centers, cub / boy scouts or likes, schools, to be use. I thought that was a nice thing to do. :)

I love these ideas. I have some wooden ones in a large glass jar for decoration. But usually I give them to my DH...he builds model boats (some are more than 5 feet long) and he re-shapes the spools (both plastic and wooden) into all kinds of things for his models. Around here, nothing gets thrown away until it's been assessed for "boat part" potential!

Here's some creative ideas for kids. Look to the right of the page and scroll down. Good luck!
http://www.artistshelpingchildren.or...ideaskids.html

While it hurts, I now toss them. I tossed one out yest. but still looked at it twice before it hit the wastebasket.

I used to be a big crafter & just knew I could create something with everything. Now that I consider myself a quilter, I've had to stop saving all of that "trash to treasure" stuff.

My big prob. was with picking up pinecones in the woods. My husb. would ask "where are you going to put these? With the other 3 bags you already have"? Such a funny guy but he was right. I still have a hard time tossing them out.

No, don't throw your scraps away. Send them to me. I will pay shipping.

Judy

I bead weave bands that fit around the spool and then paint the top and bottom, attach a thread and it becomes a Christmas tree ornament. Or you can paint them with a holiday design and put little drumsticks on top, crossed over each other and it becomes a drum to hang on the tree.

I take them appart and use the pieces that fit in thread cones and tubes to make them fit on spool pins. Saves the price of the inserts that are sold and they do the same thing.

Cat toys!!!!

Someone on here listed in his post that it took 5 spools of thread to complete a quilt. (Sorry, don't remember your name - just that it was a guy!) It got me thinking... how many spools of thread would I use for a project? I started saving them. Then they were just sitting there in the drawer looking not very exciting. So I covered them with scrap fabric and have them in a pretty glass bowl. I like to watch the number grow.

I have put them on rope for the kids to play, I have wrap them with Christmas fabric and string to make a swag for tree, made doll furniture out of them.....and gave some to other folks who wanted them.

Haven't read all the messages but I use my empty spools for putting embroidery threads on.... I have a pile of wooden spools with sewing threads still on them... can't throw them away either... maybe a museum might like them.... yes, I am old.... !!!

I also put mine n old mason jars...along with a few full
of old buttons. They decorate the top of my fabric
cabinet. Still have some more, like a lot of you, keep
thinking something wonderful will pop up to use them for.
Oh, yeah. I have a gallon Mason jar that is made into
a lamp. I have it 3/4 full of buttons. You could also
fill one with the empty wooden spools, if you have any use
for a lamp.

my grandson LOVES them. yep, i save 'em and toss them in each box i send their way. they've been one of his favorite toys since he was a baby...and he's almost two now.

I found this idea in a magazine. Spool poems. I write a short poem, print out and cut out the sentences. Glue to inch wide fabric and as long as the space needed to glue the sentences down. Allow to dry, then glue one end to a spool, dry. Then roll poem up around the spool, hold with a ribbon. TA-DA. Spool poem! I've made several and gave as mini gifts to friends.

I save only a few of the larger ones. Tape my binding to it and roll the full length of the binding on the spool. It fits perfectly on top of my sewing machine on the second spool holder and unwinds itself as I sew the binding on a quilt.

I toss the plastic ones. I use some of the wooden ones. Some uses--
I glued them on a cabinet as door pulls;
Screwed them into the wall on long screws and used them to hold up a curtain rod to hang a wall hanging;
Glued them onto pushpins and use them on the bulletin board;
Strung them on cords and made necklaces.

My cat use to chase them,
but she is not interested
now that she can chase
squirrels. J J

I toss 'em!

my LQS strung some on clothesline, then tied scraps cut into about 1 inch wide pieces, knotted the scrap pieces alternately, and has one hanging aroud the doorway leading to their scrap dept. real cute, and is a nice accent piece for the LQS.

I string them with leather strips (anything would work), and hang them swaggered around my deck. Some I paint, some I don't. It's a real conversation piece. :)

My grandaughter raids my sewing room for them. I also give them to pre-schools or kindergartens to use for their craft projects.

I recycle

I save mine & give them to the art teacher along with ribbon scraps, icky buttons, etc. She just loves it when I bring the things to her. Now when I have other things I'm planning on throwing away no matter what it is I think of her & usually put it in a bag & when full bring it to her. She'll take anything & it saves it from the landfill!

I give them to Natalie to play with,and my Chihuahua likes them.I also use them for something that I am not saying as I sent it in to Fons and Porter tips and would like to win a subscription.If I do Ill let ya know!!!! LOL!

recyle bin

I use some of them to store rolls of binding and strip etc; others I throw they don't accept them in our recycling, they only take plastic bottles :thumbdown:

Mine go to the preschool at our church, the children string them on yarn.

Carol J.

Love it. Are those the old styrofoam spools????

Cats love the empty spools

I save them in a large plastic jar that pretzels come in and donate them to my quild. At our quilt shows we have a huge jar filled with empty thread spools of all sizes and colors and people guess at the number of spools in the jar. The winner gets a very nice prize.

Also, a few times I've sent them to teachers or scout leaders for projects.

I remembered over night a craft project I saw as a little girl. Take the large cones and glue onto a base in a circle for a wreath. They also used wooden clothes pins on the outside ring to hold the two neighbors together, it looked like the circle of cones then these rays coming off them that the clothes pins create, if you can picture this. Will not go into how many decades ago that was.

recycle

Thanks for showing this... Now I have some more stuff to keep the kids occupied in the summer!