100 wishes & fabric

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 families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation.

We are doing our own version in the 100 Good Wishes Quilt for our daughter. We will be doing both a quilt and scrapbook of wishes. Thus, we are asking our friends, family and other China adoptive families to send these 2 items (detailed instructions below):

   1. a piece of fabric for the quilt
   2. a note of good wishes or prayers for the scrapbook

We hope you will be able to participate in our quilt project. We look forward to seeing what treasures arrive in the mail.

Thank you!
The O'Rourke Family

Want to participate in our quilt? It is just 3 easy steps.  Here's what you do:

1.    Choose a 100% cotton fabric that you like. It can be from a fabric store, fabric you already have, or something that is special to you, or maybe even fabric that has special family meaning.

       (1/3 yard works just fine or a “fabric quarter” for $2 from JoAnns works too) ***
 

.2. Make a WISH card.  On a piece of paper - please write your wish and ATTACH your picture (so she can see who sent the wish).  The wishes will go into the scrapbook.

The wish can be your own words or thoughts, a favorite poem or quote, a blessing for the new arrival, a prayer for her, a favorite verse, or whatever. Your wish can be as simple or as elaborate as you'd like. If you feel creative and want to decorate it, that would be great too. 

3.  Mail wish and fabric to me: - contact me by email if you wish to exchange quilt squares and a wish. Thank you. Email : Fstbaknib@comcast.net
   
We are hoping to have the fabric in by the end of April.

*** If you do not have time to get fabric, it would be great if you still did a wish card & mailed it back–  thank you :)