100 Wishes Quilt

100 wishes quilt


You're probably wondering what this is!! Now that we are officially a "waiting family" we can start on the next project. Here is some information on the quilt:

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei, or "100 Good Wishes Quilt." It is a custom to invite 100 people to contribute a single square patch of cloth. The 100 patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the family and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation. We ask that you please participate in this project. We love the idea of welcoming our daughter into our home with a quilt that represents the good wishes for her from our family and friends.

Here Is What We Would Like You To Do:
1) Choose any 100% cotton fabric that you like. It can be from a piece of clothing or from a fabric store. It just needs to have a design and color that you like.
2) Cut one 8" x 8 square from the fabric.
3) On an acid free piece of paper (so it will last a long time), put a small piece of the fabric, include your "good wish note" and your name and address. The fabric will be used to make a quilt, and the notes will be placed in a life book which we will give to our daughter when she is older. She will be able to match the fabric and wish with the squares in her quilt.

Ideas For Selecting Fabric Squares - Select a fabric that is meaningful to you. 100% cotton fabric is best, as it washes and wears better. If there are several members in your family, please feel free to send more than one good wish note and pieces of fabric. We ask that the fabric is pre-washed (to prevent shrinkage) 8x8 fabric square and we will add it to the squares for little T's quilt. In China, these quilts were originally made from the garments of family and friends surrounding the child with luck and good wishes.

Ideas For A Good Wishes Note - Well, what would you wish for an infant to have in her life? Some ideas are good health, perseverance, compassion, love, and a sense of humor. Use that as a guide for your good wish note. Keep in mind that our daughter will not see your note until she is older. It would be great to get the fabric and notes by March 2007 so the quilt can be completed before we bring our baby home. Please take a few minutes from your busy schedules to help us create this very special keepsake. The miracle of this adoption has been helped and nurtured by so many of you and this will be so incredibly meaningful for us as well as our new arrival!

I will be sending out an email to our family. If you would like to participate please let me know by leaving a comment and I will email you our address. Once we start getting squares in I'll probably set up another blog for the pictures and wishes.