Maker: Susan Patrick

Panel number: 433

Petition sheet number: 525

Person honouring: Emily L. Wastney

Relationship to maker: Great-great-grandmother

Emily Wastney was very active in her community, raising money for various causes, supporting her church community, and cultivating bulbs, especially narcissus and other types of daffodils.

The daughter of Margaret and William Alborough, Emily was born in Nelson in 1863. She married George Edmund Wastney and they farmed in Wakapuaka near Nelson. Together, they had five children: Olive, Gladys, Edmund, Ralph, and Phyllis. 

In 1915 she helped establish the first Daffodil Day with the aim of raising money to send to New Zealand soldiers (among them, her son Edward Fox) on the Western Front at Christmas – she was in charge of supplying bulbs for this purpose.

She won prizes for her bulbs as well as for her fruit cake, sweet peas and lemon cheesecake. She also played hockey and tennis. I think she might have been competitive! That’s why I included a prize ribbon and bulb on the panel. 

Emily died at the age of 79 in 1942 and is buried at St Andrew’s Cemetery near Nelson.

Panel materials: Sourced from existing garments and household linens, and second-hand threads. The white background fabric was cut from a linen bed sheet I was given while living in Norway a few years ago. The other fabrics are scraps from cotton and linen clothes. I also used a range of embroidery threads, including some vintage and some hand-dyed from botanical sources.