Hi and thanks for coming back to read about what I was up to in November. It was a full month with work, travel, family time and lots of crafting. I wound up with relatively free weekends most of the month and I tried to make the most of it. My goal at the start of the month was to make some good progress on finishes and I achieved that goal. I fully finished seven stitching projects, and finished the stitching on three more. I also had a quilt finish and a quilt start.
Let's start with the stitching - I will share the details in each photo's caption about the projects and finishing decisions.
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| Thankful by Frony Ritter Designs Stitched with called for thread on a scrap of Aida, finished on a wooden piece from Chantelle's 141 and stained with maple wood stain. |
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| Belle Pepper, stitched on unknown linen with mostly called for threads (a few subs). Finished on a board from Joann that I bought years ago and stained with Red Oak wood stain. After I took this picture, I decided to add a little bit of skinny off white pom poms around the stitched piece. |
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| Greta the Witch - stitched on a scrap of evenweave with DMC threads Finished as a pillow with Lady Dot Chenille |
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| Purranormal Activity from the 2025 Just Cross-stitch Halloween issue Stitched on light purple Aida with called for DMC threads Finished as a round with pom poms and a ribbon as a hanger |
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| Halloweenie by Lizzie Kate, stitched with kit linen and called for threads (except for the purple, I substituted a Color & Cotton purple) Finished as a pillow with fabric and trim from the kit |
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| Reward of Merit pinkeep by With Thy Needle and Thread Stitched on 32 ct. Lambswool linen with called for threads Finished as a pillow and filled with walnut shells, Lady Dot edging |
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| Patriotic People by Emily Call Stitching Stitched on 32 ct. Flax Linen with substituted threads Finished on a Chantelle's 141 board |
It was really great to get so many pieces finished in November. I set the goal at the start of the year to "stay ahead" meaning that I wanted to fully finish more pieces than I finished the stitching on and I'd fallen behind the last few months. If I hadn't finished any new pieces, I'd have caught up, but alas, there were a couple stitching finishes for the month too.
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| Acadia National Park from the book Stitched on 18 ct. Oatmeal Aida with called for threads The date and name of the park will go on the back when it's fully finished and represents the year that we visited.  A segment from Holiday Lineups, an old Leisure Arts booklet Stitched on a scrap of light blue evenweave with DMC threads I plan to finish this one as a pillow |
Kaleidoscope by Yasmin's Made with Love - I started this at Stitch-con last year and have worked on it a little at a time since then. I love how it turned out - it's such a fun piece and I can't wait to have it framed and on the wall. It is stitched on 40 count Butter (I believe from Rogue/Atomik Ranch) with all the called for threads. This is my first piece from this designer and I really enjoyed stitching it.
On the quilting side, I had one goal and finished it - I quilted and bound the baby quilt top I made last month and gifted it at the baby shower at work in mid-November. The mom-to-be loved it (and I just heard yesterday that the baby is here!).
I started a new quilt project as well and this one will be a long-term project - it's a scrap quilt that begins with 221 neutral four patches. It will be a good one to stitch on here and there and can be a good leader/ender project. This one checks the box from the two November goals of figuring out something to do with my scraps. I have already raided my neutral scrap bucket twice and now am cutting into fat quarter pieces. While this one only takes three or four colors, I hope it will make a good dent in those. In addition to that project, I made another scrap block with strips. I made a bunch of these a few years ago, but then put them aside. I thought it would be good to pull them out again; maybe I can figure out how many I need of each color over the holidays.
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| New strip/scrap block on top of the ones I made a few years ago |
In addition to all the crafting, November found my in New York to visit my daughter. My husband and I both went this time and we enjoyed seeing her latest show and going into the city two days in a row. It was really fun to see everything decorated for the holidays (we were there just before the tree lighting). We headed home for Thanksgiving and had a nice family time. I hugged my son for the first time since August and loved hearing about his adventures at college. Overall, it was a great weekend and so nice to have both kids home.
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| Tree at Bryant Park |
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| Sunset over the Hudson |
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| The Rockefeller Center tree a few days before its unveiling |
November was a really great month - a nice mix of quiet and busy but with crafts in my hands all along the way.
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