Pre-school quilt - advice?

The Kindergarten class at my son's Montessori school decided to make a quilt for one of their classmates who has recently been diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease that has left her paralyzed from the knees down.  One day she's complaining that her legs hurt, they're saying it's growing pains, and the next thing you know she is diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome.  Incomprehensibly sad....  The students all decided they wanted to make a gift for her, and they ended up wanting to make a quilt.  Each child decorated one of sixteen squares with embroidery floss, buttons, and cord.

Knowing I sew, they asked me if I could quilt it for them.  Of course!  It's certainly the least I can do.

But now, after getting the squares, I find myself in a little dilemma.  They're incredibly puckered.  I don't think I could fix the embroidering without compromising the children's work -- it's after all *their* efforts that are important, not mine.  My job is to sort of permanently attach theirs together.

Do I just sew them together as patchwork and let them pucker?  Perhaps I should cut them into smaller shapes around their embroider and applique them down on a backing fabric?   The gravity of the meaning of the project is making me indecisive.

Any advice would truly be appreciated!  I need to make it as soon as possible before this poor girl gets any worse and before school lets out.



Didn't they do a fantastic job?  Some of these six-year-olds can embroider better than I can. :) 

Pinwheel quilt

I was invited to a baby shower, but she didn't find out it was a boy until only a few weeks before the shower.  Of course I had to wait and figure it out; I've made too many neutral quilts this year. :)  (Although this one would be fine for a girl, too.)

I had a considerable number of leftover squares from Dylan's zig zag quilt.  Luckily, I remembered them and turned them (literally) into a fun pinwheel shape for the Spring birth.

top

With the recycling of the squares, it took only a week, and best of all, made with fabric from my stash.  I added a few Backyard Baby panels to the center for interest.  

Solids are Kona; backing fabric is by M'Liss.  The trail of the airplanes blended perfectly with the meandering quilt stitch. 

My first pinwheel quilt is complete.  The baby shower was today at 3; I finished binding at 10 am and it came out of the dryer by eleven.  Phew.  :)

Zig zag quilt - finished

I was finally able to finish the zig zag quilt that I started for my son the summer before I got pregnant.  Pregnancy and sewing did not mix for me.  I was sick throughout the first trimester and my back hurt too badly the second and third to sit and sew, but I did get stacks and stacks of 5" squares.  I adapted the method from PurlSoho.  I realized that I hadn't made any quilts aside from the tiny cot-sized blankets he took to school, and he needed a warm quilt for his new twin sized bed.  After all, he is five.  It was finished, per usual, the day before I wanted it to be complete, his birthday.