Maker: Carolyn Hawthorne

Panel number: 369

Petition sheet number: 439

Person honouring: Ellen Brabazon

Relationship to maker: Great-grandmother

Ellen Cox sailed to New Zealand from London in 1872 with her family – she was eight years old. The Cox family came from a farm in Devon to Willow Farm near Waipawa in Central Hawke’s Bay. 

When older, Ellen worked as a maid at Mount Herbert Station where she met her husband Sam Brabazon. From bush, they cleared a farm at Norsewood and raised three children. Ellen loved to embroider, knit, and crochet. 

Ellen died in 1939 aged 75 years. 

Panel materials: Sheeting donated from the Intercontinental Hotel as my background. Threads I already had and crochet trimming were from my stash. I knitted the trim, which I sewed along the bottom of my panel to incorporate my great-grandmother’s love of handiwork.