Northern China's baijia yi, or One Hundred Families Robe, is composed of dozens or hundreds of patches and is often embroidered with auspicious symbols and motifs, such as the twelve symbols of the zodiac, the ba gua (eight-sided representation of the Daoist trigrams), and the wu du (“five poisons”). The robes were made as spiritually protective garments, particularly for male children.

Although the baijia yi patchwork often follows a pattern—a Log Cabin-style block in this case—the overall effect of variously patterned patches and elaborate embellishment is similar to Crazy quilts.