Haley’s Angel Wings

“A Celebration of Her Beautiful Life”

About 18 months ago I wrote a memorial for my granddaughter, Haley. It has been a long time of often inconsolable grief, a dance of sorrow and joy, and often pain and pure love for the entire family. Today I am sharing the way in which I spent these months. I designed and created a set of Angel Wings to celebrate her life using my favorite needlework technique…French Boutis. It is very exciting to share this with everyone who has lost someone special or who knows someone in need of a lovely celebration of a life well lived and a way to keep the memories in their hearts. The pattern for this can be found on my Etsy page.

This is a digital pattern and includes two angel wing patterns, one traditional and one art deco, instructions and more photos.

For those who are not interested in Boutis Needlework, this pattern can also be used for embroidery or even quilting with a thin layer of batting between the two layers of fabric and stitched by hand or machine.

For every pattern purchased a donation of $5 will be made to the Danada Veterinary Hospital in Wheaton, Illinois, where Haley worked for many years. She was studying to become a veterinarian at the University of Tennessee.

Please visit my Etsy page and participate in a celebration of life for someone you love.

Another way I have spent my days was to create a quilt in her memory.

This quilt was started when we began taking Haley for radiation and physical therapy following her diagnosis of a stage 4 malignant brain tumor in November of 2018. Appliquing the blocks gave me peace while I prayed for a cure, a healing, a full recovery, and then for more time. Alas she passed away one week before her 21st birthday, almost three years after her initial diagnosis. The pattern I used was taken from Sue Garman’s “Sarah’s Revival.” Quickly it became “Haley’s Revival.” I did do some altering of the pattern to make it a larger 98″x98″ size. The applique was completed before her death, but the piecing of the blocks, sashing and borders were finished three months after. With much love and sadness, the hand quilting began on January 28, 2022, taking 487.5 peaceful and therapeutic hours, and was finished 10 months later on November 26, 2022. In white thread I stitched her name inconspicuously with birth date and death date. The label on the back is a pocket and is filled with a written page of her story and a couple of photographs. The completion was truly a help in my grief recovery. We miss her with every breath we take.

And then I began the design and creation of the angel wings in celebration of her life and beautiful memories made with all of us.

Amities, Averyclaire

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My Precious Granddaughter

Haley Elizabeth Jablonski

Sept 12, 2000 – Sept 4, 2021

Our hearts are broken! My beautiful granddaughter, Haley, 20 years old, passed away Saturday, September 4th, following a three year battle with brain cancer. Haley was a fearless lover of life. Even in the toughest times she found the will to fight with grace, courage, determination and perseverance.

Haley was a lover of animals and was studying at the University of Tennessee to become a veterinarian. She was a member of the Sigma Kappa Sorority and was Vice President of Alumni Relations.

Her passing leaves a terrible void in the lives of her parents, David and Heather Jablonski, her brother, Max, and our entire family. Our lives will never be the same without her. She was a bright light in all of our lives. We love you, Haley. You will be forever in our hearts.

We miss you!

All our love, Nana and Pa 💕💕

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a truly blessed Merry Christmas and a peace-filled and healthy New Year!

Amities, Averyclaire

Zippered Bag

This past year and already into the new year I have been busy teaching French Boutis classes and designing new patterns. I also have done several quilt trunk shows for quilt groups.

After many months my new French Boutis Zippered Bag pattern is published on Etsy as a complete kit and as a PDF downloadable pattern. The small bag when completed measures about 5 x 7.5 inches. It has a 12 inch zipper and is lined with beautiful fabric.

Once again French Boutis is an ancient art. Simply done, two pieces of special fabric are sewn together with a small running stitch (quilting stitch) on drawn pattern lines. Then a double strand of Boutis yarn is drawn through the channels from the reverse side giving the piece a raised relief. (Similar to trapunto but has no batting.) Traditional Boutis is done on white batiste fabric. However, I have fallen in love with the Provencal bright colors. Hence my colorful kits.

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Luscious Provencal colors are available with the kit including beautiful lining fabrics. The fabric is 100% pima cotton and the linings are carefully chosen 100% cotton quilting fabrics.

For those not interested in a kit, the pattern and instructions are available in PDF downloadable form. However, the pattern must be enlarged 129% from 8-1/2 x 11 inch paper to 11 x 17 inch paper. It was reduced for ease in printing. A full size pattern is included in the kit.

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Alas there has not been much time left for my other interests such as stitching. I hope this year allows more time and better health!

Please visit me on Etsy or Instagram at “Averyclaire222“.

Amities, Averyclaire

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentine’s Day to all my blogging friends around the world!!! Hugs!

Amities…Averyclaire

Boutis Kits on Sale

For one month, my patterns and kits are on sale for 10% off.

Please visit my Etsy site and try your hand at a beginner Boutis project!

Each kit contains all the materials necessary to complete your project.  Give it a try!

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Three Ornaments

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Two Hearts

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One Scissor Case in your choice of colors!

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS!   Averyclaire

A Few Favorites

These are a few favorites of mine for this time of the year. A “Boo Bag” … “Halloween Pumpkin” … and “Halloween Fairy.” I have a couple more to post later.

Happy Autumn! Amities, Averyclaire

The 50th Celebration

Here we are celebrating our 50th Anniversary with our family after those 50 amazing years together!

Our 50th Anniversary!

My dear handsome, loving husband and I have been married for 50 years today! He is the light of my life, friend, soul mate, and true love! It has been an amazing journey together these past 50 years! We are truly blessed with a wonderful family and lots of friends!

And here is my lovely family!

Amities…Averyclaire

A New Tutorial and A Few New Finishes

Yes…now it’s been nearly two months since I have posted. Surely I need to take more photos and document more of our busy lives here! I did some finishing and some Boutis work, taught a couple of Boutis classes, took some time off from everything for a bit. We went on a vacation to Gettysburg and Lancaster, PA and then to Williamsburg, VA. It was lovely, relaxing and fun. I am not much for taking photos of vacations and not too much of a history buff, but I really enjoyed this one.

After I posted photos of my latest Boutis design and kit I created a tutorial to make the silk covered snap which I used for the scissor cases. I put the materials to make it into the kit along with everything else, but posted the tutorial on the blog above. It is “easy” and makes a lovely addition to anything that needs a really nice snapped finish. Check it out.

This banner was stitched by the dear husband of blogger “Love those Hands At Home.” You can read more about it at Kerry’s blog in her March 27th post. It is exquisitely stitched. The colors are beautiful.
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All ready for Halloween is this fun pillow done for Pat.

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And Christmas as well also done for Pat. I love the cross stitch fabric she used!

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A couple of Spring finishes…a chunky little Robin and an Easter Bunny couple. Since Easter is done and Spring is nearly over…it will be ready for next year!

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A pair of scissor holder/pinkeeps done for Carol who was giving these lovely little pieces as beautiful gifts.

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And another early Christmas finish for Southpaw Stitcher.

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Southpaw Stitcher also completed an early June piece.

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And Anne stitched one of my FAVORITE pieces from Prairie Schooler…R is for Rabbit! I hope someday I find enough time to do this one for myself!  Of course I absolutely fall in LOVE with every single piece I finish for others and now my list of wanna-stitches is NEVER ENDING!

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For myself I have completed a couple of more colored Boutis pieces but don’t want to post photos until I decide if I am making them into patterns.  I am also in the middle of stitching a larger 24″ square piece white on white. But it is nothing to look at until I begin to do the cotton cording, so until then no photos.

Thanks for always stopping into my blog.  I love when you leave comments for me, so please do if you like what you see!

Amities, Averyclaire

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