Finding Fifth: gumnut hats

Sunday, 11 March 2012

Sunday Stash #4

Not many children growing up in Australia would have missed out on reading the adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by Author/Illustrator May Gibbs. She is our Australian version of English Flower Fairy Author/Illustrator Cicely Mary Barker.

She grew up near Bunbury in Western Australia and used the native flora as her inspiration for the characters in the stories.

Eucalyptus blossoms

Banskia cones

Her books have entertained generations of us with tales of the sweet gumnut babies, wattle babies, lizards, possums and other native fauna. And who could forget the nasty Banksia men?

My daughter has my old books and some new paperback versions like this....

So I was delighted to find that her illustrations are now available in beautifully soft quilting fabric at Spotlight stores. It is not cheap at $19.99 per metre and so I only bought 25cm of 3 of the prints. But the Royalties on these prints go to the Northcott and Cerebral Palsy Alliance as May Gibbs left the copyright to all her work to these two charities in her Will.

I hope to get back there during a sale and buy some more. I think that they would make the sweetest features on a tea cup rug.

Kookabubble gumnut hat

My talented friend Dede from 'Kookabubble Craft and Clothing' makes gorgeous Australian flora and fauna children's apparel. My daughter has a few of her Australian fairy dresses.

Kookabubble Fairy dresses, wings and wands

It was Dede who advised me to buy a Janome machine and gave me my first sewing lesson in September of 2010. She is a sewing teacher at a community college in the Blue Mountains. Late last year she was approached by the Australian Museum and commissioned to sew them some outfits and accessories for children to wear during visiting school exhibitions. She is working furiously to get them all done. I am very proud of her.