Sunday, April 30, 2006
100 Good Wishes Quilt
100 good wishes quiltTo 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 friends and family to contribute a patch of cloth with a wish/prayer/poem/verse or song for the baby. Part of the patch of cloth goes into the quilt for the baby, and the other part of the cloth can go into a scrapbook with the wish for the child. The quilt contains the prayers, luck, energy, and good wishes from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric.
Select a fabric that is meaningful to you, it doesn’t have to be new- a project you started but didn’t finish, a piece of clothing, something you thought was pretty at Walmart or if you are a parent it can be from a child’s clothing. (In China, these quilts were originally made from garments of family and friends, which would surround the child with luck/good wishes.)
The purpose of the 100 Good wishes quilt is to create a quilt with each of the quilting squares associated with a specific person/wish. This type of quilt is common in China and has become popular in the Chinese adoption community.
The person sending the piece of fabric also sends a wish on a piece of paper for a scrapbook for the person who will eventually receive the quilt. The wish can be for good health, something religious or some other positive life outcome. The square should be a 8x8 inch piece of fabric (or there about) then we can cut it to the correct size . It is ideal if you place a piece of the fabric on the paper containing the wish so that we can associate the wish with the fabric and the person who sent the fabric.
The Wish: Your wish and the way it is presented can be as simple or as elaborate as you want it to be. The wish might be a prayer, favorite poem, a heart felt random thought, a Bible verse or a quote. You can write it on an index card, white paper, stationary, lined paper, acid free paper- whatever you like. You can hand write or use a computer, make it scrap-booky or stamped - whatever you like- this is your wish/prayer for our daughter, we want it to reflect your personality.Some of the wishes I have read include- I wish you love ,hope and happiness, I wish for you to find the love of God, I pray that God keep and protect you …… Let your personality shine!
Thank you soo much for helping us out and if onyone else out there is also building a Bai Jei Bei I will gladly contribute to your project. Just e-mail me. hitech@eastlink.ca
| posted by Deb at 3:42 PM
