When it came time to actually quilt this, that is when I had some issues.  You see...every design idea just didn't work.  They were too perfect (though they certainly weren't perfectly quilted), too structured, looked too much like an adult did it.  The intent of this quilt was to have it look as much as possible like the kids themselves made it and when I remembered that, I had the epiphany that resulted in the final quilting design that I used.

I quilted it with wonky ribbons, just as if my kids actually did the quilting instead of me and I'm so happy that it really worked.  It suited the style of the quilt perfectly.

The art teacher provided the fabric for the border which helped to reinforce the quilting design since it is of kids' drawings.  When sewing on the binding I remembered the same thought, keep it looking like the kids did it.  They certainly wouldn't have hand sewn it down on the back as was my original plan and thanks to a suggestion from my son Jammer, I sewed it down with a squiggly line that also suited the quilt perfectly.

The binding was pieced together from the same solid rainbow fabrics used for the sashing.

I totally love the resulting finished quilt and the art teacher actually cried tears of joy when she saw it for the 1st time. BTW...that smiley face block is one of my favorites.

The other teachers were equally as thrilled with the final result.  I was worried that they wouldn't like my quilting design but those worries weren't realized.  They totally agreed with my choice and also felt that anything else wouldn't have looked right or like the kids themselves did it, which is what they wanted.

The idea for this quilt started with the pattern Flower Box Garden by Deborah Johnson Quiltmaker May/June 2012.
These are the fabrics that I had to work with.
I altered the block plan in that instead of the pieced feature blocks with the appliqued petals I used the EMS focus fabric instead.
And here is the completed quilt...

 To the Rescue
My kidlets helped out as quilt holders a couple of days ago while I took the pictures.
It was very windy that day and they had a tough time just holding onto it. Little Sunshine, who's fingers are just barely visible on the upper left side, was holding on for dear life.
It acted like a sail and I was just lucky to get these decent shots. It goes without saying that they lost hold of it more than once but it never flew off.
No matter how hard we tried nor how long we waited the wind would not die down enough to get a full on picture of the back but I think you can get a good idea from this picture.  As I wanted this quilt to appeal to all members of the Fire and EMS family, I chose a fire truck, ambulance and police fabric for the back. But... I wasn't able to get enough of it anywhere and since I'm tending to like pieced backings anyway, I put it together this way using the Red ladders and fire hoses fabric for the other side.
I'm happy to say that I free motion quilted this one on my longarm Penelope with a single loops, double loops and stars pattern.
I used Glide thread in Cardinal and I think it is just enough color without overpowering the white fabric areas.
This quilt was made as a fund raiser for Breast Cancer Awareness and it is being raffled off this weekend at a EMS trade show in Rochester. The ticket sales proceeds will be donated to the Northeastern chapter of Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure. I really hope that the response is huge and a lot of money is raised.
My employer donated all of the fabrics and batting for this donation quilt because his wife is a breast cancer survivor and the company is committed to raising money for this very worthwhile cause.
The original raffle was supposed to be held in June at an even bigger industry trade show but it was pouring rain and our booth was outside.  Needless to say that the 1st 2 days of the show we didn't see many visitors to our booth so the owner decided to postpone the raffle until the show this month, which thankfully is indoors so there is no chance of the quilt getting soaking wet again.

The Shades of Winter, Pieced and quilted by Barbara Valachovic

Celtic Garden Maze, pieced and quilted by Eileen McCabe

Spring Feathers, pieced and quilted by Eileen McCabe

Abduction from the Seraglio, pieced by Noel Payton, Quilted by Sue Schoch