100 Wishes Quilt Fundraiser

As we prepare to bring Ashton and Alia home from Honduras, we began thinking about a special fundraiser to provide our children with a keepsake and to help with the costs of getting them home.  We came across a special Chinese tradition from the northern part of china. When welcoming and celebrating a new life, family and friends are called to put together a “Bai Jia Bei” or 100 Good Wishes Quilt. The quilt maker invites 100 people to contribute a single square or patch of fabric to be included in the quilt. Often times the squares would come from the fabric of their worn clothing and it is said that the luck, energy, and good wishes of the people who wore these clothes now surrounds the child when he/she is wrapped in the quilt. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation. We think this is a great tradition and would like to make a Bai Jia Bei for our kiddos from Honduras; however, for us it would represent the love, support and prayers of our family and friends. The squares do not need to be from old clothing but can be scraps or newly purchased material – something that either has special meaning to you or just something you like. We would love to have as many of you as possible contribute a square to our quilt if you are able. If your children would like to contribute their own squares and blessings and wishes, that’s great too. We think it will be a beautiful treasure and keepsake for our little ones.  We would like to do a quilt for both Ashton and Alia.

If you are interested, here’s what we would need:

1. One 7” x 7” square of 100% cotton material (washed and ironed before cutting the square to allow for shrinkage).  If you would like to send a square for both of our children great!!

2. Along with your quilt square please include a “wish” which could be a prayer, poem, thoughtful quote, Bible verse, original thought, or whatever you choose on a piece of paper (4" x 6") along with your name.

3. On this piece of paper with the wish and your name, paste a small square of the fabric (can be about 1” x 1”) that you’re sending for the quilt. This small swatch will help us to identify your fabric within the quilt. The piece of paper can be as simple or as fancy as you’d like to make it and will be kept in a scrapbook for our kiddos to read. We know that they will love to read the blessings from each of you and find  the fabric you’ve contributed within the quilt. If the fabric has special meaning to you, please include that information on the paper as well.

 

4. If you would like to also include a picture of yourself or your family in addition to the paper, that would be great.

5. To make this a fundraiser we ask that you also include $10 for each square donated

You can either give the fabric and paper to us personally or put it in the mail. Your help will make this a wonderful keepsake. Thank you so much.

If you have any questions, or need our mailing address, contact us via email - 5acrossgrove@gmail.com