Quilt

Bai Jai Bei

100 Good Wishes Quilt

Hello Friends and Family!

Most of you know by now of our plans to adopt a little girl from China whose name will be Emma Katherine. We are waiting for our referral and hope to receive it sometime late this year or early in 2010. While we wait, I am taking on the project of making a 100 Good Wishes Quilt. There is a Chinese custom of sewing a quilt to welcome new babies, made from pieces of fabric sent by friends and family members of the expectant couple. Originally, these quilts were made from garments of family and friends, which would surround the child with luck and good wishes. Each piece of fabric is to be sent along with a written prayer, wish, blessing, poem or scripture verse for the new baby. Tradition states that the little one will sleep under the good wishes of family and friends.

We would love for you to participate! We love the idea of welcoming our daughter into our home with a quilt that represents the good wishes you are all sending her way. If you are interested in participating, here is what you need to do:

1. Choose any 100% cotton fabric that you like. It can be from clothing or from a fabric store, like Hancock’s or JoAnn’s or from a quilt shop. It just needs to be a design and/ or color that you like. (Stretchy fabric like t-shirt material will NOT work).

NOTE: If you are purchasing from a fabric store, you can purchase or have them cut a “fat quarter”. That is usually the smallest cut a fabric store will make and that will be plenty of fabric to make the cuts needed for #2 below.

2. From the fabric you choose in #1 above, you will need to cut and send me two 8 inch by 8 inch squares and a scrap (approximately 1 inch x 2 inches) of the fabric to go with your “good wish” (see # 3 below for the good wish info); you will have a total of 3 pieces of fabric to cut.

NOTE: If you are uncomfortable cutting the fabric or fat quarter, you can send it to me and I will cut it for you.

3. Write your “good wish” on a piece of paper. The paper your wish is on should be at least 4 inches x 6 inches but no larger than 8 ½ inches x 11 inches. You can handwrite your wish or print it out from the computer. Be as creative as you want to be when making your wish; it can be as simple as a plain piece of paper or as fancy as you would like. Attach your scrap of fabric to your good wish. Be sure to sign your good wish with your name. You can even include a photo of you and your family if you would like. I will put all of the “good wishes” into a scrapbook so she will be able to read them anytime she wants.

4. When you are done you will mail me 3 items total:

a. Two 8 inch x 8 inch squares of fabric;

b. One “Good Wish” on paper with the scrap of fabric attached.

Ideas for selecting fabric:

• Select a fabric that is meaningful to YOU.
• 100% cotton fabric works best; it washes and wears better (NO t-shirt material).
• If there are several members in your family, please feel free to send more than 1 set of fabric. It would be so special to include good wishes and different fabrics from each member of the family.

Ideas for good wishes note:

• Just think about what you would wish for our child to have in her life. Love, laughter, happiness, good health, compassion, a sense of humor…..Share your words of wisdom or consider a poem, a quote, or a bible verse. It can be as long or short as you like.

If you are interested in participating in this project, email me and let me know. I will send you my mailing address. I will need your fabric and good wish by October 31^st, 2009.

If you have any questions, you can email me at kchapp@charter.net

Thank you for helping to make a special keepsake for our daughter that will surely be passed on for generations. I am really excited about this project!

Thank you and much love to each of you,

Kathy and Calvin