Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2013 Spool Stats


Yup, I polished off 38 spools of thread in 2013, a big increase from recent years when I averaged in the low 20's. Did you save your empty spools this year? Leave your numbers and thoughts in the Comments below.

Diane Harris of Quiltmaker magazine is thinking about writing on this topic. If she does, I'll post the link.
 In the meantime, here's her blog

Do you have any good upcycling ideas for spools before I toss mine? A garland maybe? 

See 2012 post and Comments here

32 comments:

dianneo said...

I saved my spools for the first time. 28 for me. Happy new year!

unfinishedquilts said...

One of the quilt shops around here saves them for an elementary school that uses them for crafts. That is what I have been doing with mine :)

Wendy @ Wendysquiltsandmore said...

I intend to save mine in 2014 and will then donate them to the local kindergarten / pre school for craft purposes. Happy New Year.

audrey said...

Too fun! I never thought about saving mine.:)

Jessim said...

I do not save my spools, but I spent the last few months trying to empty bobbins to start the new year (I have a Bernina, so bobbins are insanely priced- I only have 15.) I now have 10 empty bobbins to start the new year :) I hate having to pull thread off them and waste it.

Farm Gate Creations Incorporating Hummingbird Quilting said...

What a great idea, I may have to start that this year. 38 is a huge amount, you've certainly been busy.

JoAnne in southern California said...

Mostly, I use cone thread because I'm lazy and really don't like getting a new spool all the time. I did manage to finish up 18 spools in the past three months. A local quilt shop was requesting them for a project with kids so I've left the cones in the drawer lately. I did finish three 6000 thread cones this year and donated those too. Maybe I sew too much?

Amy's Crafty Shenanigans said...

I just counted - I used 18 this year with three off colours very very very close to being done! I finished 16 spools last year. I keep all mine - Pinterest has some great ideas so ONE day I will use them for something!

Amy's Crafty Shenanigans said...

Oooops - not 'off' - ODD colours!!

Anonymous said...

I will save my spools in 2014. Cute idea!

Mad about Craft said...

Happy New Year!

No saved spools this year!

Unknown said...

I only saw this idea at the end of last year, so have decided to track mine for 2014. Will link to your post.

Heather said...

I did save mine this year and there are 11, there are another 5 with only a few metres on them, but they might get used next year, so they'll be counted then. I have been saving spools for several years and plan to make some sort of sculpture with them. someday

Ann Marie @ 16 Muddy Feet said...

2 hallways and 28 stairs later, I counted 20 spools emptied. Then 28 stairs and two hallways back to let you know. I didn't even do hardly any sewing so I thought. Hmmm I hope to double that for next year, because I plan on getting some sewing done.

shirley said...

My total used spools this year was 189...up from last year's total of 160. for 2014 my goal is 200 spools....which might be tough....since i don't have many partial spools left any more. gotta sew more.

With spools i am painting them and gluing around a mirror for my bathroom. different sizes and heights. interesting.

PrairiePeasant said...

Thanks for inspiring us Karen! I was surprised by my total of 45, since it includes quilting, coiled baskets, and general sewing (I thought it would be higher).
http://prairiepeasant.blogspot.ca/2014/01/a-year-in-spools.html
Next year will be difficult to compare as I'm moving to more cone threads in 2014.

PrairiePeasant said...

Oh, and I'll donate mine to my local art recycling centre, ArtsJunktion.

Pamela said...

I had 45! That's a lot of sewing and quilting!

Mary said...

I emptied number 97 yesterday. I do a fair amount of sit-down machine quilting. I don't think I could ever use that much in a year by just regular sewing. I hope someone comes up with a good use for them since I've saved spools for several years.

sissa said...

I emptied 37 spools and 25 pre-wound bobbins (do those count?) This was a higher count than last year.

patty a. said...

I will post today pics on my blog of the 43 spools I emptied in 2013. I also track (loosely) the number of yards of quilting thread I use and my total for 2013 was 41,820 yards. I don't count my regular sewing thread in this number.

Bea said...

I counted my today and found 67 emty spools. Crazy! Next years box is opened today! See my collection on capricornquilts.blogspot.com
Happy quilting
Bea

Quiltgirlie said...

I counted 12 empty spools. See my spools on quilt-girlie.blogspot.com
Britta

Ms. C said...

24 spools and most were wooden ones inherited. I save those in glass jars for something productive someday. One was cardboard and it went in the compost and the rest were plastic and may become a garland like in Sew Many Ways.

Kim said...

I ended the year with 14 spools used. I thought there would be more! I guess that can be another goal I set for myself in 2014!

Riel Nason said...

I save my spools, but they are just in a big pile, who knows how many from each year. The kids sometimes take them to play bowling or build towers. My daughter also made a spool Christmas tree ornament this year. Happy New Year Karen!

Anonymous said...

I picked up a couple containers of old spools at an auction back a couple years ago that I finally put to good use...I think I used up about 20 making a braided rag rug that was zigzag stitched together. Of course they were all pretty small. I do save the wooden spools but haven't actually made anything with them yet. The plastic ones I just throw in the recycle bin.

Diane Harris, Stash Bandit said...

Hi, this is Diane from Quiltmaker. Thanks to everyone who saved spools in 2013 and posted the results here. I've blogged on this topic at Quilty Pleasures (http://www.quiltmaker.com/blogs/quiltypleasures/2014/01/saving-spools-for-the-record/). Many thanks to Karen for this great idea. It's been fun, hasn't it?

Julie said...

I saw this last year and thought it would be fun, so I started throwing my spools in a small wooden wagon. Just counted them today and the total is 38! I was surprised and pleased!

Leanne Parsons said...

This was my first year saving spools and I emptied 27. Of course, some of those were almost empty to begin with. I might have a hard time beating that total next year!

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