The Halloween and Autumn season has so many stunning designs in the cross stitch world, it can keep us busy stitching all year. When a Black Needle Society video popped up on my YouTube, it was an immediate thrill to start planning!

There are projects that have been on my wishlist for years, and this challenge was the perfect kick to get going on those “someday maybes.”

The Black Needle society has a project for each prompt, and a goal to stitch 500 on each. I did the same stitch goal, but repeated projects that fit the prompts.

The whole challenge was vlogged and had been posted to my YouTube channel! Check it out! Stitchhauntober 2025 Cross Stitch Challenge

I’m pleased to post that I completed the challenge! I got a later start on it because I was still ordering fabric and floss for a few.

For the 13 prompts, I made progress on 2 works in progress, had 4 new starts, and 1 finish. Make sure you watch the fun vlog I put together as I documented to progress:

Project 1: Quilted Scarecrow by Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet

Here’s where I started:

Prompts:

• Falling Leaves
• Pumpkin
• Crow

And here it is with 1500 more stitches!

Project 2: Witch’s Kitchen from Tiny Modernist

Here is the starting point:

Prompts fulfilled:

• A Calderon
• A skeleton (just the skull, but that’s what I had!)

Here it is with 1000 more stitches.

Project 3: Stitch Witch from Tiny Modernist

Prompts fulfilled:

• A Witch
• Black Cat
• A Bat

This was a new start, so here is the project with 1500 stitches:

Project 4: Pumpkin Lane Series Designed by Lori Pengelly for Pansy Patch Quilts and Stitchery

Prompts fulfilled:

• Haunted House
• An Acorn

This series contains 9 houses, and an optional border to stitch them in one piece. I was able to get started on border, make my way into the first house.

Project 5: Calendar Crates by Priscilla Blain for Stitchin’ with the Housewives

Prompt: Black and Orange.

OK… I gpt really stuck on this prompts, and found October to have black and orange, but since this is a calendar series, I really wanted to start with January . The snowmen in this pattern have orange carrot noses, and the background is black. So… it still counts!

Project 6: Months in Mugs by Fairy Wool

Prompt: An Owl

This prompt held up my starting this challenge. I’m really not an owl person, and they weren’t coming up in the samplers I had in queue. Finally I found this piece on 123CrossStitch, which I purchased the PDF directly from the designer on Etsy (affiliate link). I love this owl mug, and November is my birthday month!

I just stuck to the yellow fill for 500 stitches because I didn’t want to cut up more floss for the other colors. It’s great progress and I think I’ll be able to get is fully finished within the first week of November!

Final Project: October small project from the Calendar Crates series.

Ok, final challenge! A start and fully finish all in one go!

Prompt: The number 31.

It was tempting to put another 500 stitches on the January main project of this series, but I decided to ramp up and tackle this little pillow. It’s 49 x 49, very doable with the right amount of rage focus. I’m thrilled with it!

This challenge was so much fun to push my comfort zone. I’ve always done one cross stitch at a time, and I’ve learned how beneficial it is to have multiple projects going to prod different parts of your brain.

This also elevated my whole stitching system, from how I sit with my hoop, to what floss organization each type of project needed.

What have you been stitching for Halloween and Fall? I’m always amazed at the range of designs that are out there, and all the different tastes stitchers have.

Don’t forget to check out the companion video to the post with all the fun recaps!

Spooky Stitching! StitchHauntober Cross Stitch Challenge!
https://youtu.be/jaNQ-FZziU0