100 Good Wishes Quilt

Well it is time to get started on the 100 Good Wishes Quilt for ‘Pumpkin’. We have created a blog especially for 'Pumpkins' quilt. You can access it here or through our link on the sidebar.

I am taking these instructions and explanations from Dolores who got them from Kathy. I hope you ladies don’t mind me borrowing your explanations as you did such a good job at explaining everything.

What is a 100 Good Wishes 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 families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation.

This is what is typically done:

1. Choose ANY 100% cotton fabric that you like. It can be from your own clothing or from a fabric store. It just needs to be a design and colour that appeals to you in some way.

2. Cut ONE 8" (pre - washed) square from the fabric.

3. On a piece of cardstock, affix a swatch of the fabric you chose and write/type a wish that you are sending for our daughter. Sign your name and where you are from and drop it in the mail or deliver it to us in person.

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, feel free to send more than 1 set of scraps.

It would be so special to include good wishes from all members of your family. In China, these quilts were originally made from garments of family and friends, which would surround the child with luck/good wishes.

Ideas for good wishes note:

The possibilities are endless! Think about what it is that you want for this child (i.e., a great sense of humor, good judgment, strong faith, a spirit of independence etc.). You can also choose to send along a prayer, a poem, or lyrics to a song that has touched you in some way. When our daughter is old enough to understand the concept of the Quilt, she will be amazed by all the love that surrounded her as she breathed life into our family.

It is critical that the note has a portion of the fabric affixed to it so that we can identify (through the years) which piece of fabric came from whom. All the notes will be kept for our daughter so that she may keep all the good wishes close to her heart.

We too will be approaching friends and family to ask them to help us out with the quilt. If you are interested in sending us a square or doing a square swap, e-mail us privately and we will send you our address.

We are so excited about this new project. Thanks for participating!!