There are plenty of needlewomen in our books. Kate in Greenbanks is one of the most accomplished, and uses her embroidery skills and colour choices to express her sadly repressed creative skills. We can only imagine the beautiful "little scattered rounds of flowers in green, magenta and deep blue on a heavy old counterpane" and her exquisite wisteria-covered altar-piece. Her work may resemble this lovely 1920s tulle scarf in the V&A collection designed by Francis Troup and embroidered using silk thread by Winifred Troup. 

Scotland may be missing from yesterday's embroidered map, but a new exhibition in Edinburgh more than compensates. Stitched: Scotland's Embroidered Art at Dovecot Studios brings together more than 80 embroidered textiles from the National Trust for Scotlands's collection. It covers the period from 1720 to 1920 and includes many exquisite pieces stitched by a wide range of needlewomen. This is the bedcover Lady Augusta Gordon embroidered as a wedding gift for her son, with FROM HIS MOTHER in huge letters in the centre. It is as good as new, probably unused, and it's not hard to work out why. The exhibition was discussed on Radio 4's Front Row and there is a good catalogue. 

One Woman's Year by Stella Martin Currey was first published in 1953 and her suggestions and advice for each month still inspire and console. She says that November is a good month to 'design embroidery for yourself' so, in keeping with her excellent piece on the subject (she was clearly a skilled and creative needlewoman), this week on the Post we admire beautiful stitching. For those seeking ideas, she suggests copying an old map as a "fascinating adventure in embroidery" which can have stunning results, as illustrated by this map sampler (1794, V&A).

Dorothy B Hughes, whose mid-century noir novels rank with those of Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith, grew up in Kansas City but spent most of her adult life in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In The Expendable Man (1963) the reader follows a UCLA medical intern as he drives to Phoenix, Arizona (seen here in the early 1960s) at a time of social tension which is brilliantly evoked in the book.

Although Elisabeth Sanxay Holding - "the top suspense writer of them all" according to Raymond Chandler - lived in many places with her British diplomat husband, she was born and brought up in New York and later retired there. NYC is also one of the settings for the thriller The Blank Wall (1947) which was filmed by Max Ophuls as The Reckless Moment (1949) with James Mason and Joan Bennett. 

The setting of Heat Lightning (1931) by Helen Hull is based on Albion, Michigan. As the Persephone Perspective says, it features one of literature's finest grandmothers. "When we first catch sight of Madam Westover, she is, in true and undying pioneer spirit, peeling and canning her own peaches – a vivid domestic manifestation of the generation divide" because her daughter buys her canned produce. The photo is of a multi-generation family canning peaches in 1934. The post was written last weekend. Little did we imagine we would be uploading it on Wednesday morning through a mist of tears.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher was born in Lawrence, Kansas, but is most closely associated with Vermont. This is a very attractive room in her house near Arlington (c1933) where "the Fishers managed to combine plain country living with a rather constant involvement in the world’s affairs".