Quilting Pumpkins, Reclaiming Books and November Loves

Happy November All!
This is the November block of Kathy Schmitz's A Patchwork Year...suitably a cornucopia to signify the American month of Thanksgiving. I loved stitching these.

It was a wet Halloween night but that didn't stop this little hunter from trick or treating at my door.  His costume came with a stuffed duck and raccoon. So thankful for grandsons!

You remember I love my floor lamp that is an Ott Lite.  I admit it is rather ugly -it was bought for function not beauty.

At the time I didn't realize they have several versions of floor lamps that are very attractive.  I've been looking at one for the living room. This is the Marietta OttLite floor lamp I came across in my searching.  We need more lamps in the main area and I think I'll buy this one.

                                                                   

And right on the heels of talking of spending...
As you know, I have a thrifty side to me...though I hear my grandmother's voice whisper...penny wise and dollar foolish. Did anyone ever say that to you?
 Anyway, I am interested in ideas for reclaiming old books as we have quite a few here that made the move with us.  It is disheartening to read about how many old books get discarded in dumps each year.
I came across the idea of junk journaling on the internet and followed leads to the very creative sisters at  Roxy Creations who have tutorials on the subject.
This video shows a Golden Book turned into a Bird Journal...really neat.

  I thought it was such a great idea, I set about making one such reclaimed book following their tutorial.  There is nothing like the hard covers for sturdiness.  Though I can never have the creativity to make such wonderful page displays, I like the idea of bringing so much of my blog/stitching stuff together between just two covers, instead of now on scraps of paper and myriad little notebooks scattered about. ** Update: You know what, with moving my sewing room, this project has been put aside for the time being but I'd love to know if anyone else sets about to do this.

Murphy is not impressed with the poinsettia there that lived in the garden all summer and is Christmas 2017 circa.  I am.  I think I'm supposed to be putting it in darkness now if I want those leaves to turn red but after babying it along I'm afraid I'll lose it.

I had to check back to see what exactly I had promised with my OMG over at Elm Street Quilts.    After a gazillion hand stitches around the thirty pumpkins, I've made it at least to the flimsy stage.   Yea!

I'm in the midst of quilting this using the free motion quilting foot on the machine.  I've gotten myself to a comfort level by holding onto the piece with my left hand and moving it with the added help of my right.  This is such simple stitching doing an outline of each pumpkin, I'm almost embarrassed to share it.  However, I like how they are turning out a bit puffy compared to the surrounding block.  No plan for a border as such; I'm just going to bring the beige backing around for a narrow edging- figure there is enough colour and stitching in the individual blocks to qualify as a finished piece.

So my stated November goal is to have this finished completely and also have my Scandinavian Redwork blocks to the flimsy stage.

Hope you are having a great start to a new month with so much in it to look forward to.
Also linking up with Not Afraid of Color, Free Motion By the River, Sew Fresh Quilts, Silly Mama Quilts, Brian's Home Blog, Esther's Quilt Blog, Crazy Mom Quilts and Quilt Fabrication.