Quilt for Christmas

Years ago I found the pattern for this quilt and fell in love with it. I bought some fabric, dyed another one and found things in the stash to make the quilt. I started on the background, which I pieced by hand, cut out many of the pieces for the applique and promptly got too busy to work on it. I thought of it many times over the years but the hand applique always discouraged me. Many years later, I tried machine applique. I don't love it for some things but for others it works great. So with that in mind, I dug out the quilt and recut the applique pieces and stared putting it together. Life got in the way so it was put away again. Several years ago, I got it out and finished the applique.
Flashback to many years ago in another life when I sewed uniforms for restaurants that wanted a very custom look. I bought 7 bolts of fabric that one of them wanted and made way too many ruffled skirts and blouses from said fabric. I ended up with about a bolt left and kept it because: one.. I am a collector of fabric and two.. it was a nice Christmas plaid with red, green and a touch of metallic gold.

The stored Christmas fabric was perfect for the back of the quilt, so it was put together and machine quilted. Nothing very fancy but with all those tiny pieces it took a while to do. Now it was ready for the binding and a rest in the pile of works-in-progress, after all the holiday season was over. This year I got it out, purchased the binding fabric and finished it. Or so I thought.... found out that I still had to do the had embroidery like the eyes, bows and lots of other "stuff".
It is now finished, mounted and can be enjoyed.