100 Good Wishes Quilt



Quilt in the making



Emma's book of Good Wishes



Our baby girl and her beautiful finished quilt

Well it's that time once again to make another 100 Good Wishes Quilt.  Actually Emma's I only machine pieced the squares together and then had a professional quilter put the back on and quilt it.  It is beautiful.  Emma's quilt was just finished after we got home with her.

I can tell you that most likely Noelle's quilt might not be finished by the end of 2012.   BUT it will be done somehow, some way hopefully by the time she is 5. ;D 

Okay, so I stole the writing below from another adoptive mom's blog but it is written perfectly and tells exactly what I am asking for in the way of a fabric square and good wish.  My cousin reminded me that I called them "squishes" (square and wish) when I was making Emma's quilt - I didn't even remember that!  :D

If you cannot or do not want to send a fabric square, please send a good wish for Noelle via E-mail. I think most of you have my address.  You can put the good wish on a recipe card and mail it in a legal size envelope or put the good wish on a piece of colored construction paper if you like.
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Again this is not my writing but plagiarized from another blog.  Is that illegal?  ;D  Probably not?  Hmmmm..

Dear Family and Friends: While we are waiting for the arrival of our daughter, we are working on a project with which we need your assistance. We are creating 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 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 (1) 7" square from the fabric. 3. On a sheet of paper or notecard, put a small piece of the fabric and include your "good wish note." Please include why you chose the fabric and your name and address. The fabric will be used to make a quilt, and the notes will be placed in a photo album which we will give to our daughter when she is older. 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. In China, these quilts were originally made from the garments of family and friends surrounding the child with luck and good wishes. IDEAS FOR GOOD WISHES NOTE: What would you wish for an infant to have in her life? Some ideas are good health, perseverance, success, love, and a sense of humor. Use that as a guide for your good wish note.

To see what we mean, please check out these websites with beautiful examples of these quilts:

http://www.originalquilts.com/100_good_wishes_quilts.htm

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!

P.S. from Me:  Emma's quilt was started when we first began the adoption process for China.  Even though Emma is from Vietnam, we still made one for her.  This is a neat idea for anyone - a grandmother with a new grandbaby, a first bio baby, etc.