100 Good Wishes Quilt

In the northern part of China families traditionally make a Bai Jia Bei, or 100 Good Wishes Quilt to welcome and celebrate a new life. It is customary to invite friends and family to contribute a patch of cloth and a wish for the baby. Part of the patch of cloth is sewn into the quilt for the baby, and the other part of the cloth goes into a scrapbook with the wish for the child. The quilt contains the blessings from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric.

I so wish that I would have known about this beautiful tradition when I was expecting Victoria, but I am very thankful that she has a lovely quilt made with much love from my Grandma. When we were expecting Mara, we had learned of this tradition and we collected squares of fabric by participating in quilt swaps with other adopting, waiting parents. The other squares of fabric and wishes were gathered at my baby shower from family and friends. My Grandma then pieced the squares together and made Mara a gorgeous Good Wishes Quilt. I put all of the wishes and samples of the fabric into scrapbooks. Mara adores looking through these and having me read her special wishes and loves to find the material in her quilt that goes with the wish.

We wanted to welcome our new little angel with her own special 100 Wishes Quilt. However, this time we are doing things a little differently. I came across this ebay store called Bearhug baby quilts. Anyway, this talented woman makes the quilt based on your preferences using 100 different fabrics, and then gives you a swatch of each fabric. As much as I would have LOVED to ask my Grandma again, I also didn't want to be greedy! She has many grandchildren, and I am lucky that she lovingly made me two quilts for our girls. Also, it is very hard to get to see everyone and ask for fabric/wishes etc... Anyway, I thought this may be simpler for everyone involved. So, I ordered a quilt. We were able to choose the color, style etc.. and we also had her name embroidered on! I am dying to insert a picture here! I will work on that soon! We received the quilt and it is absolutely beautiful. Now I will get busy putting the fabric swatches in a scrapbook and ask everyone we see during this wait to adopt a fabric and write a wish to our little one.

Here is the link for anyone interested in ordering your own....

http://stores.ebay.com/Bear-Hug-Baby-Quilts