I’d like to ask friends and family to participate in a quilt project which is explained below. This quilt has become very popular in the Chinese adoption community as a way to honor our daughter’s heritage and give them a sense of history so that they have a piece of themselves to pass on to their next generation. Most of our Chinese daughters come to us with no personal history at all, except for the culture of their homeland. The quilts are a wonderful keepsake and reminder of all the people that were waiting for her and wishing her well.
The last Empress of the Qing dynasty was a mere concubine, until she had the good luck to birth the Emperor’s only son. When forced to leave her baby alone for a while, she conceived a plan to protect him from the senior wives and obligate the other powerful Manchu families to back his claim to the throne.
“From the head of each of the highest one hundred families in the Empire, she required a bolt of the finest silk. From the silks she commanded the palace tailors to cut one hundred small pieces and from these make a robe for her child. Thus he belonged, by symbol, to one hundred strong and noble families, and under their shelter the gods would fear to harm him." (Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck)This legend has transformed into the Northern Chinese tradition to make a Bai Jia Bei, translated to “100 Good Wishes Quilt“, in which 100 friends and family members are invited to contribute two identical patches of fabric along with a wish, hope, prayer or dream for your daughter. Then 100 patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from everyone who contributed. The second piece of fabric is used in a memory book attached to the wish of each participant. The idea is that each patch on the quilt can be matched to it’s sender and their wish in the memory book.
If you wish to participate in Mia’s 100 Good Wishes Quilt Project please send a 7x7 piece of cotton fabric of your choosing. It can be a special piece of clothing, the fabric you choose can have special significance to you, it can be something representing Asian culture, or it can just be a fabric you like. Be creative, it’s up to you. I’d like to request that you wash the fabric first before cutting your square to prevent shrinkage and fraying of the fabric.
WISH: This is the fun part. Send a decorated page or plain note (no bigger than 10 inches) containing a good wish for Mia with a scrap of your fabric attached to the paper. Your wish can be created as simply or elaborately as you like (for you creative and scrapbooking people). It can be something you write yourself or a favorite poem, lyric, quote, prayer or anything else that strikes your fancy. Please remember to sign your wish and include your relation to Mia (if family), city and state. These written wishes will be placed in a 12 x 12 album so that your wishes will always be remembered. You can participate together as a family or each member can send one individually if they’d like.
If you wish to participate, please send your fabric squares and wishes to me as soon as possible (so you don’t forget) or by October 1, 2006, at the latest. I will be hand carrying all of the fabric to my grandmother in Wisconsin who has graciously agreed to use her well known quilt making skills to construct my daughter’s very special quilt.
Thank you for participating. I will update everyone upon the completion of the quilt which will probably be next year sometime. If you have any questions about this project or the process of my Chinese adoption, don’t hesitate to ask. I love talking about it.
