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.

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!

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!