One year for Christmas my kids got a gumball machine which we kept thru the years. I have some of my smaller threads spools inside the glass portion of the gumball machine----quite a conversation piece!

I got some from an estate sale. The thread is no good. I have a heavy glass vase and put them in there. The colors of the thread make it a colorful little piece.

A big jar or clear decorative vase

that sounds adorable Dotti I love vintage too would love to see a picture

I have a friend that has a walking stick/cane made out of wooden spools with small ones at the bottom and bigger ones at the top. It is painted and coated with a sealer. I've tried for years to talk him out of it or trade and he will not part with it.

Old wooden spools
 

I had lots of them also. I glued two together painted them and made pincushions for my quilter friends

I have seen table lamps made of large Deli type jars filled with spools both empty and threaded.....love that look. Am planning one for my little corner

I have some spools that were my great aunt's. I took a 2 qt canning jar that was my grandmothers and made a lamp out of them. It's in my sewing room on my treadle.

I woud love to have some of those!!!! I was somewhere and saw a wreath made for a sewing room. It was decorated with small scissors, old wooden spools of thread and a bow made of a tape measure. It was beautiful and would look perfect in your sewing room. I think it also had an old small pincushion on it. Just to give you an idea

I have a large canning jar with a lamp attachment on the cover that is full of old spools. I use it in my sewing room.

I would get a pretty glass jar and display them in your sewing room.

I have my in a couple of old canning jars to display.

I wish people would post pictures of what they do with the spools.

I have sewn for so many years that I have a pattern box full of them. My niece grew up playing with them as blocks. They are hers as far as she is concerned... LOL! They sit on a shelf in my garage right now. I will have to get another box soon.

Years ago they used to string them into tiny dolls with the addition of a big wooden bead. I have seen tramp furniture and doll house furniture made with them. Or they were wheels on pull toys. How fun, huh? People used to re-use everything.

A lady at our local Hospice Shop made a "rag" wreath of tied fabric strips decorated with old spools of thread, it was so cute! I wish I had bought it.

All my coworkers at school always give me their mothers, aunts, neighbors etc. sewing stuff, I always toss the thread, but I keep other sewing aides like darning wood eggs etc, I don't know why I don't mend socks but it's like a bit of history.

I display mine in glass large flower vases and glass jars. I would be more than happy to take them off your hands. I would swap material for them if you would want to do that.

I agree with MarilynSue. I think wooden spools are supposed to be collector's items.

freeze the thread to give it moisture and use it
 

freeze to give it moisture and use

thread spools
 

I did this with mine. I also bought the small little spools of thread in a pkg. at Dollar store and made the garland.

I would string them on a cord and either make a cute necklace or a tree garland. If you have enough you could make a swag under a shelf in your sewing area. Lots of fun ideas come to mind! You could make spool dolls using wire instead of string so you could pose them and either hang them or stand them on display. Can you tell i was a pre-school teacher? Lol, i find purpose in everything!

One very inventive quilter I know converted all her sewing room cabinets, drawers, etc. with pulls made out of those wooden spools. She painted each a different color against a light, very neutral color cabinet, drawers, etc. It was beautiful!

I keep mine in an old jar with zinc lid. Looks very pretty. But If you don't want them I'd sure love to have them.

My grand mother used to string empty spools on colorfast ribbon to make toys for us when we were small. They would have 6-10 spools, and made wonderful noise when they were shaken because they were not strung tight. (there were four of us, and we are 2 years apart, so inexpensive entertainment was the order of the day!)

Large glass display jar is great.

I got a bunch from my mother in law when having to sell her home, we donated to a children's care center and they have used for art projects teaching sizes, shapes, etc. My house if full of to much memorabilia already and I know art classes at schools are delighted to get scraps, sewing items like zippers and such as well as spools.

Make a mason jar table lamp and put them in it. I made a lamp using a 1/2 gal green glass canning jar. I think it would look cute in a sewing room.

I bought a large antique blue gallon canning jar. Then, went on ebay and bought a lamp kit with the lampshade. Filled the canning jar with the wooden spools and made a sewing room table lamp! I love it!

My sister-in-law made a darling wreath out of spools, and other antique sewing notions. She made a bow out of an antique cloth measuring tape.

Put them in a bowl, a glass one thats what I would do anyway.

I collect them too, to put in a big jar to look at.

I donated a whole popcorn tin full of wooden spools to a local boy scout troop---they use them for craft projects- those kids are pretty creative with donated items- I tend to check with them (and a local 4-H group) before tossing anything. :)

I was thinking that you could make some kind of garland with them or maybe a wreath. Good luck!

Thanks for this post. I've been saving wooden spools for some time now, just throwing them in a drawer. I knew they were old and not made anymore and could not bear to just throw them away. Just figured I'd find something to do with them. I got a couple ideas now!!

Do something like this but leave the thread on them.

http://www.sewmanyways.blogspot.com/...d-garland.html

Please dont toss them. PM me first. When I was little my uncle made a little walking toy using a rubber band and a stick. Would love to buy some to make for a little one in our family.

The spools came today!! Thank you!
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