Monday, October 27, 2008

Ian's 100 Good Wishes Quilt

Some of you were my friends way back when I had my old blog - HeidiHomeschools.  You probably remember following along on our "journey to Ian".  If so, then you probably knew exactly what the title of this post meant - several of you even sent material and wishes for Ian's quilt.
To those who are newer readers, or who just met me as "Reviews by Heidi" then you may have no idea what this post is about.  It is for you that I give this explanation.......
While we were waiting to adopt Ian, I joined several Yahoo groups of families who were also waiting to adopt a baby from Vietnam.  On these groups, the members started talking about "100 Good Wishes Quilts".  At first, I had no idea what they were talking about, so I did some research and found several websites and blogs where people talked about these quilts and even shared pictures of them.  The idea behind the 100 Good Wishes Quilts was actually a Chinese tradition.  The idea is to collect 100 "wishes" (quilt squares and well wishes/prayers).  The quilt squares are assembled into a quilt and their accompanying wishes are to be placed in an album/scrapbook.
I got in on one of these swaps.  But, I took the idea one step further and extended the invitation to share quilt squares and wishes to my blog friends as well as our IRL friends and family and our church family.  We got well over 100 wishes!
Last winter, the girls and I assembled all the squares into a quilt top, but that's as far as it got.  A few weeks ago, my friend Carolyn (who makes the most awesome purses in central PA - and I'm not just saying that because I love her - she's one the Best Purse Award 3 times running at a local fabric shop!) invited me to go to the church with her - she wanted to lay out a quilt she was working on and was willing to help me with mine as well.  So, during that time, I was able to get the border sewn around the quilt top and we also laid it out and pinned it together with the batting and backing.  I got home and felt somewhat overwhelmed - wondering where to start with sewing the thing together, and afraid I might ruin it!
Carolyn offered to do the quilting for me - bless her heart!  She finished it in just a few days!  Here are a few close-ups so you can see the details of the stitches:


And here's the whole quilt!  (If you sent a quilt square, can you find it?!)

Isn't it beautiful?  I put it on Ian's bed and will leave it there for awhile.  Eventually, I'm sure I'll pack it up as a keepsake for him.  I still need to put the wishes together in a scrapbook. 
Now the girls are both asking for quilts too!  Carolyn ~ thanks so much for all your help ~ you're a great friend!  And to everyone who sent wishes for Ian's quilt ~ thanks!  You helped make the quilt very special.

1 comment:

Shannon said...

Ian's quilt is beautiful - as are all of your children! We put a good wishes quilt together while we were waiting for our daughter from China. She's just now getting old enough to ask about each square and look at her wishes scrapbook. She loves it. I'm sure Ian will treasure his too.
Blessings,
Shannon

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