100 Wishes Quilt

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is Chinese tradition 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 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 creative memory notebook with the wish for the child. The quilt 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.

In attempt to find out more about this tradition, I found the following posted on another adoptive parent’s website. The book Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck is about the final Empress of the Qing dynasty. She is a concubine in the Imperial household, but has birthed the only male child of the Emperor. At this point in the book, she has to leave her baby alone for a while and is thinking of ways to protect him, as well as obligate the other powerful Manchu families to back her son's claim to the throne. The book reads:

"She must offer the child as an adopted son, by symbol, to other powerful families in her clan. Yet what friends had she? She thought and she pondered and she devised this plan. From the head of each of the highest one hundred families in the Empire, she required a bolt of the finest silk. From the silks she commanded the palace tailors to cut one hundred small pieces and from these make a robe for her child. Thus he belonged, by symbol, to one hundred strong and noble families, and under their shelter the gods would fear to harm him."

We ask that you please participate in this special project. We love the idea of welcoming our daughter, Caitlin 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) 8" 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 scrapbook which we will give to Caitlin 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

WHY LADYBUGS ARE SIGNIFICANT: Ladybugs are a sign of good luck in the Chinese adoption community. It is said that if you see ladybugs that good things will happen soon! Because of this, many people like to include fabrics with ladybugs in their 100 Good Wishes Quilts.

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 Caitlin! Thank you!

If you would like to participate, please e-mail me at tneenan@richmond.edu and I will send you our address.