Projects I have finally finished!!

What is 100 Good Wishes Quilt?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 family and friends 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 book 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.

What a treat to read the good wishes when the child is older to know how much they are loved and wanted!

I started to collect wishes and squares way back in 2006 when we started the adoption process. Once we knew the wait was getting longer and longer I put everything in a drawer and said I would continue the quilt when we knew we were closer to being matched with our baby.

So in March of this year everything came out of the drawer and I started to put the quilt together. I have never made a quilt of this size before and was not really sure how to put it together. So I bought a book on how to quilt and did it step by step. To my amazement I had actually sewn all the squares together and now it was time to put the strips on. I knew my neighbour quilted so I asked her to show me how to cut these long strips. Thank you to Gail for showing me how to do the next step. It was all coming together. The hardest part was quilting the quilt which I did and I think it took me 6 hours to quilt the whole quilt. We chose a very bright backing together and here it is completed. I am so pleased with the outcome and I know Emily will have so much fun when she is older to look at her special book of wishes and match each square with the square on the quilt. I have also managed to put pictures of each person next to their wish. This project was very daunting to me when I started but I get so much satisfaction when I look at it and I can say mummy made this Emily!!!