I don’t iron too many clothes, but I’ve probably worn the Teflon coating off my iron sliding it back and forth over fabric. Besides that wonderful feeling of accomplishment when I run my hand over warm folded yardage, I also get off on accumulating tangled threads. To cut down on raveling I cut little triangles off each piece of fabric before I throw it down the clothes chute. Then, as I take it out of the dryer I gleefully rip the tangled threads from the cut edges of the fabric and toss them into a huge peanut butter jar that sits on top of my clothes dryer. (No, I don’t save the lint.) When I iron, I clip of whatever thread tangles are still left. Those go in my grandmother’s glass cookie jar that sits on my sewing machine table next to the midget TV. I lamented to Lyn Broussard at a recent workshop that my cookie jar was getting a bit full. She said I should make Thread Jam. HUH?! She says she heard about it on one of the quilting shows on TV. Take a canning jar and stuff the thread in it. It looked a little naked, not to mention slightly useless and prone to catching dust, so I cut a piece of Styrofoam to fit in the top, covered it with quilt batting and pinked a circle of fabric to cover it so that I’d have a pin cushion. (The hardest part was cutting the stupid cloth in a decent circle. I had to do it over THREE times!) Not bad, but I have lots more thread. Several years ago I also discovered that you stuff lamps with thread tangle too. Please make sure you check with an electrician to make sure your lamp is stuffable before you try this at home. Are you getting fired up? How about a few more cool ideas? Here’s a clock you can stuff with thread. How about a picture frame? And what about this punch bowl? OK, so I ran out of thread, but buttons look pretty darn nice, too, don’t they? Plus there’s no chance of this puppy falling off the table. It’s so heavy filled with buttons; once you get punch in there you’ll need a forklift to move it! The bowl has individual compartments to fill, so you could alternate fillings by compartment if you like. Check your local Michael's store for this item.