100 Wishes Quilt Project

These are our family's fabrics that we chose for a quilting project for my cousin Ryan's baby. It will be his first baby and my Aunt Cindy's first grandchild. She is excited! The baby is due in February and my Aunt emailed family and friends to ask for contributions. We chose from fat quarters, they were on sale for 99 cents each, and because it narrowed the selection down a bit, and was easier than taking 6 bolts of fabric over to get cut! (except the bottom piece, that was from my stash, it seemed to fit for Jacob, who couldn't really pick his own.)

From her email:

When this project is completed, it will be a treasured keepsake. It consists of a patchwork quilt and a book of written blessings, prayers, or wishes for the new baby. It is a take-off of the tradition of the 100 wishes quilts that are made for newborn infants in China.
Here’s how it works. Each participant will give two fabric patches 7” square. 100% cotton fabric is best. Both patches must be of the same fabric. One patch will be sewn into the quilt; the other will be attached to a page in the book of blessings. Each person should write a blessing, a prayer, or a wish for the child’s life. I could use your copy if you want, or if you would prefer, I could write it up on the computer and print it before placing it in the book. If you wanted to, you could also include a picture of yourself to be added on the page.

I looked up 100 wishes quilt, and found quite a bit on the subject. I think it's a neat idea, both Tom and I had the same reaction, hey, why didn't anybody do this stuff for our kids?!. 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. I was going to look for ladybug fabric, mainly because Leanna was really big on ladybugs when she was little. When I looked up the quilts though I found out that: Ladybugs are a sign of good luck in the Chinese community. It is said that if you see ladybugs that good things will happen soon! Because of this, many people like to include fabrics with ladybugs in their 100 Good Wishes Quilts. There are tons of blogs out there specifically for 100 wishes quilts. Lots of adoption ones.

Now we just have to write our blessings!!