Makers: -

Panel number: 482

Petition Sheet Number: -

Person honouring: Helena Maria Steur-Willemsen

Relationship to makers: My paternal grandmother

I have been inspired by my grandmother’s calm presence and quiet courage. 

Helena Maria Steur was born in Germany in 1900 where her parents had travelled from a poor area in the Netherlands just over the border. When Helena’s father died, her mother took their seven children back to the Netherlands where the six boys got jobs in the coal mines. She worked as a house maid before marrying a coal miner and raising three sons.

Panel materials: Tea towels, table cloths, apron and other domestic textiles, including heirlooms, personal items and gifts from family and friends, and leftover embroidery cotton. I purchased no new materials, but bought some second hand tea towels from Salvation Army and Hospice charity shops. 

My design was inspired by the white tea towels I inherited from my grandmother 34 years ago which I didn’t use, but treasured and saved. I also had a used black tea towel, a gift from my daughter, several worn Dutch tea towels, so different from New Zealand ones, and table cloths my mother gave me over the years, some of which she had embroidered. 

When I asked for contributions, a NZ friend gave me a used red and blue striped tea towel, which to me is typically New Zealand. The words ‘good news from a far country’ are my father’s handwriting, from the proverb 'Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.'The 46 stitches in a spiral represent the rolled up pages of the petition.