A Finish, and The Frosted Thames

Ta-da!

I decided to 'stitch in the ditch' for the quilting on this one - I just couldn't come up with anything else easily achievable that I liked the idea of!

It's ready to hang above my ironing board to make me smile every day (no, I don't iron every day, but I share a room with an ironing board!).

It finished at about 21" inches square, and I'm very happy with it and it's cheeful personality.

I saw on Instagram that the Thames had frozen over.  I didn't get there whilst it was at it's most impressive, but even three days after the 'best' photos were taken it was still impressively frozen above Teddington Lock.  This shows the entrance to one chamber.

This shows the entrance to the other - it's still ice to the right of the seagulls, who were owning that icy, if temporary, beach.  

The contrast of the rippled water and the smooth ice was very striking.  Whenever I think of something quilty (and which of us quilters hasn't striven to provide a contrast of textures in a quilt?), it seems that nature has done it first!

This was the sunrise view looking up river from Teddington bridge towards the weir.  Lots of water tumbling down, and a tremendous noise with the power of all that water.

I'm glad that I went, despite the bitterly cold temperatures!  A morning trip to remember.