The quilt in question

If anyone is wondering what has happened to the creation of the 100 Good Wishes Quilt, I apologise for keeping you waiting. With the current rate of allocations, it will be 12 years before we meet the Panda. At that rate, it will never happen as we will be too old. So I am feeling a little disillusioned. I guess I need to see some good news before I get excited about the quilt.

It's referral time again!

I love this story of a couple who are adopting a 13 year old girl.

Allocations!

It's referral time again! If you'd like to get clucky over some babies, check Rumour Queen for the list of new referrals.

Allocations!

Referrals have just been made for files logged in at the China Centre for Adoption Affairs up to 7 November 2005. This site - http://chinaadopttalk.com/2007/06/08/june-babies/ - lists a few blogs of waiting parents who have just received their allocations. It's so lovely to read their excitement.

More on colour options

The idea of 100 different pinks is actually quite appealing to me, the more I think about it.

I'm interested to know from the people who read this blog whether you would find that limiting. If someone said "send me a square of fabric in some shade of pink" is that significantly harder than just "send me a square of fabric."

Or do you think it's better to just let the quilt evolve organically and just be what it is?

Colour options

For the Panda's quilt, do you think we should work to a colour scheme? The reason I ask is that I had always assumed we would just get whatever people wanted to send, but after watching you put those quilt kits together I realise that I prefer the quilts with certain colour schemes - the pink & green, and the Neopolitan come particularly to mind.

But does that just make it too hard?

What we are waiting for...

In case you are wondering how Fionn is going to fit in sewing the Panda's quilt with all her other projects, I should explain that we have decided to not start officially on the 100 Good Wishes Quilt until we are approved to adopt. For that to happen we have to go through 3 months of social worker interviews & assessment which should start in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, I have been thinking about what fabric I can contribute. (I'm allowed to contribute, aren't I Fionn?) I have a brocade vest that was part of my going away outfit for our wedding. It matched the vests that Scott & his groomsmen wore. I am going to chop that up for the quilt. I also want to find something special for Gemma & Ben to contribute. Maybe it will be a piece of fabric from a favourite piece of clothing (that they have grown out of, of course.)

I also have a large piece of pink fabric that I inherited from my Grandma. It has since become the official "Girls' Night In" tablecloth. "Girls' Night In" is a fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Foundation. The idea is that you get your girlfriends together and stay home and put the money you would have spent towards finding cures & treatments for breast cancer. My friends & I do it a little differently. We get a big apartment or a couple of hotel rooms and all bring along some pink champagne and something to share for dinner, then throw the cost of dinner into the pot to donate. We are developing other silly, funny traditions to go with it (such as the magic fortune telling fish) and my grandmother's pink fabric has become one of them. Grandma suffered from breast cancer in both breasts but recovered both times. So, a piece of Grandma's tablecloth will be going into the Panda's quilt to remember Great-Grandma Claire.

Not that this means anything of course...

but we dropped our completed paperwork into Adoption Services on Friday, and on Saturday, my nephew picked a ladybeetle out of my hair...

More on lady beetles

I've been researching lady beetles to see if they really are considered lucky in China and this is what I have come up with.

From Wikipedia:

Some people consider seeing them or having them land on one's body to be a sign of good luck to come, and that killing them presages bad luck.

and from the good folk at Ask Jongo:

The Ladybug is considered a kind of beneficial insects which protect crops from aphid (a bug that eats crops).But not many people know it is a symbol of good luck. The kind of superstition is believed in many countries: Central Europeans --and similarly some Swedes--believe that if a Ladybug crawls across a maiden's hand she would soon be married; Germans believe that the Ladybug is generally good luck but a traditional belief is that if there are less than seven spots you are guaranteed a good harvest; in England each spot means a lucky month to come; in French vineyards Ladybugs bring good weather; and, similarly, in Austria a Ladybug is a sign of good weather; its name in Iran means "Good News"; and Canadians say that you should make a wish and let the Ladybug fly away--the direction it flies too shows the direction from which your wish will come; the Chinese consider it good luck to find one in the house. But less and less people know about ladybugs, since they are rarely seen in cities now. Some people have heard of the story, but no one knows where it originated from.

So it think it is fair to say that the lady beetle is a symbol of good luck, but is not specific to China. For this reason, I think we will leave the lady beetles out of the quilt.

NB - Apparently, they are called ladybugs in the US, ladybirds in Commonwealth countries (this is what I gew up calling them) but the correct name is lady beetle and thus they shall be called by me forever after.

To be Chinese or not to be Chinese?

I asked my Chinese friend Stella about the validity of the following 3 Chinese traditions:
1. Ladybugs for good luck
2. The Invisible Red Thread and
3. The 100 Good Wishes Quilt

Here is Stella's reply:

Yes I've heard all of them. I wouldn't say they are the Chinese traditions. I'd say they are from some of the folk stories. Very interesting, hey? The second one appears in many books - novels or whatever books, mainly love books...but it can be applied to whoever that meet with each other and become friends or whatever, even your enemy. If the people's lives or activities are always tangled, yes, it applies.

Real traditions vs pretend traditions

I'm also curious about the genuineness of other "traditions" popular within the Chinese Adoption community. I read on Amazon this week that the belief that ladybugs are good luck began about 10 years ago when an American couple saw a ladybug just before they received their referral. Now, that's a lovely story, but I don't want to be raising my child with a false understanding of Chinese beliefs and customs so if that's the case, then ladybugs are out.

Also popular is this:

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break." Ancient Chinese Belief

Apparently this refers to adults who will eventually marry. Does it matter? I'm not so sure.

Let me consult my sources and report back regarding the validity of these "customs."

Intro from Down Under

Hello all. As Fionn said, this blog will be about the creation of a 100 Good Wishes Quilt for the Chinese baby that my husband and I are currently in the process of adopting. We are still in the early paperwork stages so it is still some way off, and we won't start asking for fabric until we are officially approved to adopt which, all going well, I expect to be about mid this year.

I know absolutely nothing about quilting but I do know about friendships, and I know I am so lucky to have a wonderful friend (who has never even MET me IRL, mind you) who has so generously offered to give so much of her time to do this for us. Thanks Fionn :).