100 Good Wishes

Originating in the northern part of China is a supposed tradition to make a “One Hundred Good Wishes Quilt", or 百家被 (Bai Jia Bei) in Chinese, to celebrate the birth of a baby. The quilt is created by fabrics donated from friends and family members of the baby. The fabric patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck and good wishes from all those family members and friends. (The "100" part is a figure of speech to represent "a lot" - there isn't some kind of magic number 100). Along with the fabric, each family member or friend, offers a 'good wish' for the child's new life. The result of course is a patchwork quilt, full of love and memories from special people in the child's life. What a special treasure for the child to keep forever and remember the wishes that so many loved one have made for him!

When I started the adoption process again, back in 2006, I joined some adoption groups on the web to share in the journey with others who were in similar circumstances. At different times over the past few years, some of those groups have had fabric exchanges and good wishes swaps. I also was blessed to have fabrics from many dear friends from my church in California who so generously made me a quilt, along with wishes and everything, when I moved from there. So for more than 2 years I have kept fabric squares and wishes in a box...just sitting there waiting for inspiration to come.

On March 27, 2009 the inspiration came. RJ Ping Broberg was introduced into my life. Almost immediately I pulled out my fabric squares and wishes and started a quilt for RJ. While certainly I am not a professional quilter, and I ended up tying the quilt instead of quilting it, I think it turned out cute and I love having all these wonderful squares from my dear friends and my adoption 'friends' around the world. I even made a few squares that have pictures of RJ, grandma and grandpa, Emma and me. Here is the result:





Now Emma wants to know when she gets hers. So I guess I better get started on it!