Most makers of 100 Good Wishes quilts request that contributors send a simple square of washable (and pre-washed), 100% cotton fabric along with a wish for the child. Ideally, the fabric should have some significance to its contributor or be in some way related to the wish. However, if you like, you can also include things that are a little fancier than plain pieces of fabric.
The quilt below shows examples of some of these fancier squares. It is a memory quilt that my mother and I made for my grandfather when he was in hospice care during the last months of his life. My mother had observed that the people there who usually had the best interactions with hospice visitors were those who had some item of interest over which they could interact: the item provided a natural "hook" to catch the visitors' interest and inspire questions. She thought that a lap quilt, in addition to providing some warmth for a somewhat frail elderly man, could also serve as such an item of interest if we designed it to include something from each member of the family.
To create this quilt, I sent a letter out to each of my grandfather's descendants explaining our project, and asking them to decorate a square. I included a square of white muslin ironed onto freezer paper (to stabilize the fabric) and black Pigma micron fabric markers with acid-free ink. I also asked them to send (or email) photos so I could print these onto squares using an inkjet printer and fabric treated with Bubble Jet Set.
Some of our family members know how to sew, so we also ended up with four squares (shown in the four corners below) that featured appliqué, embroidery, and piecing.
When I had collected all the decorated squares, I arranged them in the following "Trip Around the World" style quilt:
Squares with pen-and-ink designs, embroidery, appliqué, or pieced patchwork are all options you could consider for inclusion in a 100 Good Wishes quilt, or any other memory quilt. (Photo transfer of any type is probably not ideal for any quilt that will be washed frequently, so I don't recommend it for a quilt that will reside on a child's bed. However, if you plan to hang your Bai Jia Bei on the wall, it should work just fine.)
Hint: While you have leeway to change the size of plain fabric squares on the fly to fit what you need, you may not be able to trim decorated squares without obscuring or destroying their designs. Therefore, if you plan to include decorated squares in your quilt, you should know the exact size of your desired block (rather than just a ballpark figure) before you request squares so you can let potential decorators know.
Hint: Tell block decorators to leave at least twice as much room for seam allowance as you actually need. I use a 1/4" seam allowance (standard for quilting), and, even though I asked the contributors to my grandfather's quilt to leave a half inch border of white space around the design, some still took their designs right up to the edge.
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