Last month I showed you my beautiful present quilt top. I had sewn together all the fabric pieces to create the beautiful top, but I had not yet had a chance to add batting and backing and sew it all together. Today, I’m excited to show you the finished quilt, with top, batting, and back, all stitched together with the edges bound.

After I finished the quilt top, I picked a backing fabric, and then I basted together my three-layered “quilt sandwich”: pieced top, batting, and back. I used a spray adhesive to hold the layers together, but as you’ll see in the photo below, I also pin basted in the middle of the presents. (The flower fabric is the back of the quilt.)

One of my favorite parts of making a quilt is doing the actual quilting, sewing all the layers together. I used white thread to stitch around each present. This made the bows, especially, pop from the quilt surface.

Then I quilted inside each of the four squares that make up each present. My sewing machine has lots of decorative stitches, which I mostly don’t get a chance to try, so I decided to use a different stitch on each present. Some of the stitches look better than others, and here are some photos of my favorites.

I quilted the border with red thread. My husband said this was a courageous color choice because red does not hide mistakes, but this color looked very festive on the border fabric. I tried free motion quilting, a technique where you move the quilt freely under the needle. Nothing pulls the fabric or guides it except your hands. This type of quilting can be stunning, but it is hard and requires practice. I picked a quilting pattern called “lights and stars.”

No, my stitching isn’t perfect, but I like it anyway. And the red and white binding fabric is bright and fun. Below is a close-up of some of the presents with the border and binding.

Finally, I made a simple label for the back of the quilt.

Below is a photo of this quilt hanging in the entryway of the local quilt shop.

Christmas is now six days away! I am spending the rest of this week wrapping presents, cooking, and, of course, quilting. Have a wonderful holiday!