100 Good Wishes Quilt ("Bai Jia Bei")

100 Good Wishes Quilt (“Bai Jia Bei”)
For Our Daughter, Hailey


Dear Family & Friends,

As most of you know by now, we are adopting a baby girl from China whom we plan on naming Hailey. After 6 months of labor and paper work gathering, our Dossier was received in China on March 15th, 2006. We are now just waiting to hear the good news, and have hopes that we will be in China to meet our new daughter by next Spring. She will most likely be between 7 – 12 months old when she enters into our lives. In the meantime, we need your help with a very special project:

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in Northern China to make a “Bai Jia Bei,” which means “100 Good Wishes Quilt.” When a baby is born, it is custom to invite family and friends to donate a patch of cloth along with a written wish, prayer, poem, or scripture verse for the new baby.

A quilt is then made from the scraps, and it is said that the luck, energy and good wishes from all of the families and friends who contributed the fabric surrounds the child when she is wrapped in the quilt. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation. We are hoping that you will be able to participate in this project so that we may welcome Hailey home with a quilt that represents the good wishes you are sending her way.
Here is what we ask you to do:

1. Choose any 100% cotton Fabric that you like (cotton washes and wears well). It can be from clothing or from a fabric store. It just needs to be a pattern, color, or design that you especially like, or is meaningful to you in some way.
2. Cut two 8 x 8 size fabric squares of the same cloth. (Tip: If you have no idea how to work with fabric, ask for assistance at a fabric - they will most likely cut it for you!)
3. Include your “Good Wish Note.” A 4x6 or 3x5 Index Card works well! Have fun and be creative with your note cards! We will place your wish in a scrapbook that we will give to the baby some day, attached to the second piece of fabric. The first scrap will make up the quilt.
4. If there are several members in your family, feel free to send more than one set of squares. It would be so special to include wishes for our baby from all members of your family!
5. We plan on finishing this special quilt with red blanket binding, chosen to represent the “Red Thread” Chinese proverb – “An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place or circumstance.”

It would be great to get the fabric and notes mailed back to us before July 31st so that we can get started on making the quilt. We can’t wait to see your fabric choices and to read your wishes! Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your participation! It makes our journey to Hailey even more special! You can keep up with our journey to Hailey by periodically logging on to http://www.journeytohailey.blogspot.com/! Please send all swatches and good wishes to:

Melanie & Brent Henn; 1082 Hummingbird Court; Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921
(If you have any questions, please call Melanie at 719-499-8061 or e-mail us at melaniehenn@adelphia.net)

Our Love,

Melanie & Brent