2012 Steelcase Foundation Annual Report

The annual report that Rachel Hyde (of Hyde Creative) and I made for the Steelcase Foundation last year won a Silver Addy, so we needed to come up with something even more fantastic this year.

The report includes 5 stories highlighting some of the programs funded by the foundation. The stories chosen this year highlight each of the foundations guiding principals, and we chose to illustrate each of these principals with 3 dimensional stitched letters pulling together lots of brightly patterned new and vintage fabrics.

I love letters, I love fabric, I love stitching, I love tangible objects incorporated into graphic design, I love beautiful, well made things. Needless to say, this was SO MUCH FUN to work on and I am more than happy with the result. Check it out for yourself, but I think we succeeded in surpassing the high bar we set last year.


Stitched fabric letters by me, art direction and design by Rachel Hyde.

See the complete report on Steelcase's website HERE.

cover

Story headline / guiding principal

Story page

Worlds awesomest pie chart. :)

back cover

Look at the color reflected on the paper, so beautiful!

at the photo shoot.

And of course, the necessary cat photo. And some in progress letters.

Quilts are wonderful

A couple of weeks ago, my dear friend Jaclyn and her husband Matt had a beautiful baby boy, Liam Andrew.

I've never made an actual pieced quilt before, but I thought it would make a great baby gift, so I tried it out. Turns out, it was the worst/best idea ever. It was super fun, but now all I ever want to be doing is quilting. It's so satisfying! You can see your progress as you go and it's pretty every step of the way. It requires some serious perfection, and your perfection pays off in corners that meet perfectly and seams that lay flat. I'm not so much a fan of cutting out the pieces, but I think it might be easier if I had better tools than an x-acto knife, an 18" cork backed metal ruler and a 11"x17" cutting mat.

perfectly baby sized.

I have a decent stash of fabric, and was able to use only fabric I already had.  Maybe it's bigger than a decent sized stash...  I'm super happy with the color and pattern combo!  

Even though I've never quilted before, I decided to just make everything up. Following directions isn't always my favorite thing.  I went with a simple triangle pattern, and the quilting is just a straight machine stitched pattern following the lines of the triangles.  I think the whole process took me about 2 days.

So much fun. Hopefully I'll get to meet the little guy in a few months!

Have I ever mentioned that I love making things?

And it's not just love, it's also a compulsion. If you've ever attempted to have a conversation with me for longer than like 5 minutes, you know that my hands don't stop moving. Lately I've been channeling that energy into making some really fun pieced fabric and leather necklaces. They involve a lot of tiny pieces and a lot of hand stitching I get to use a variety of tools. And they're pretty. 

The part that takes the longest is picking out and matching fabric. I have a bag full of vintage fabric scraps that I've been able to use, as well as the never ending drawer full of pretty cotton I bought when I worked at Fields Fabrics in high school. They probably look like I threw some random fabric together, but they take me a good 20 minutes, and then I change my mind and start over. I probably should just pick random fabric, the end result would be essentially the same!

Patterns, drawing, and bags.

I have recently become the owner of a wacom drawing tablet. I don't know why I've never used one before, what with my love for drawing type and all, but i'm a little in love it.  It was tricky getting used to watching the screen instead of my hand as I draw, but i'm catching on.

I've also been really interested in making textile patterns lately, and I love screen printing and sewing and I have a huge bag of colorful vintage metal zippers.

So this happened:

(UPDATE: they're on etsy, HERE!)


Last week I was out at school to talk to a typography class about things they should be doing in school to get ready for the real world, which I am so not an authority on, but Ellen told me I was inspiring.  Anytime I'm at Trinity for any reason, I make sure I bring a screen printing plan with me, and the cranes won this time.  The print studio is probably the best room on campus, it has huge windows that face the prettiest view of Trinity and it's sunny all afternoon. Theres an old radio that happily and loudly plays The Drive all day long, and I don't think anyone is using that room this semester, so I take advantage of that when i'm out there.

Those of you who know me know that I don't really draw anything other than letters (it's just best if I leave that to MelissaPeterson), so to draw these guys I folded a crane, took pictures of it, and then drew over the photos with my wacom.

I like them.
The little zipper bags will be on etsy soon, and I hope to be printing larger scale pieces of fabric as well!





Side note: this is my first wacom adventure. It was for a poster for a Pantene Beautiful Lengths hair donating party that the nurses at Northwestern are putting on.

What a cute ponytail! Who knew I could draw those? Not I!

Craft Time.

Hey friends! It's been a busy month, I've been freelancing at Abelson Taylor since Halloween. In case you were wondering, Halloween is a hilarious day to start working somewhere.  And I've making pretty things.

I've been needing a new wallet for about 2 years, but I'm too cheap and also too picky, so I finally decided to make one. I'm pretty happy with it. Vintage zippers, awesome fabric combinations, and all the right pockets.

I also crocheted the warmest scarf I've ever worn.  I used the afghan stitch, so it's literally a mini blanket that's appropriate for me to wear in public.  It may suffocate me, but at least it'll hold out the chicago winds!

I finished the scarf on the train ride home for Thanksgiving, so I tested it out at Saugatuck Dunes. It worked pretty perfectly.

also, my parents dog is awesome. not very good at posing for pictures though. 

and a few of the first snowflakes of the season!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Cathedral Window II

Finished!

At first it was little annoying and slow going, but once I got the hang of it, I was making up excuses for why it was ok that I was just sitting on the couch sewing a tiny quilt square and watching project runway on hulu.  Now that it's done I'm contemplating a full quilt...  bet you couldn't have guessed that one! 

(anyone have a extra bolt of off white cotton sitting around that they want to donate to the cause?)

Look at all that hand stitching!

I stitched though to the back, making the wonderful quilted pattern.

Due to the folding and layering process, light shines through beautifully,  just like a cathedral window!

Cathedral Window Process

I have a lot of travel coming up in the next month and half and so, and I always need a little project to work on for long hours in cars.  I've been wanting to try the cathedral window quilt for quite a while, so I got some pieces ready for my trip to Baltimore about a week and half ago.  There is a fantastic tutorial at the Hyena In Petticoats blog.

It's perfect for me, all hand stitched, I can use my pretty vintage fabric scraps, it incorporates some origami folding, you stitch the squares together as you go, and it's not backed, so I can stitch squares together until i'm bored, and then it'll be done!  I'm thinking my first attempt will end in pillow size.

Here are a few process photos, it's great fun!

Coming Soon!

Sneak preview of some new headbands that i'll be posting to my etsy store soon!

I love these! I get to mix and match all my lovely fabrics. And they barely make a dent in my unnecessarily large collection of cotton... which is probably a bad thing.

geometry! vintage fabric! tiny pieces!

Yay for crafting in tiny apartments...! The floor is such a handy surface.