Almost Famous + Carrie and Jon Get a Camera

Why "Almost Famous" you ask? Well...we were just featured in the Summer edition of Quilts and More! Which is awesome...
So go get one!

You can find our article entitled "Made in the Shade" on page 78... and it includes both the instructions and diagrams needed to make our Lamp Quilt that we submitted to them a few months ago...

And then for the second half of this entry...
My sister, Carrie, has been promoted (within our little company)! To photographer...
Whoohoo!

(I've found that my day job really gets in the way of my extracurricular job because by the time I get home around 6:30... it's a little too dark for picture taking. So that's where Carrie comes in.)

As you can imagine, we are all really pumped that our lamp quilt was featured in a magazine. And true to Jung form, we wanted it well documented with copious amounts of pictures. Carrie gave it her best shot with her iphone, but it quickly became apparent that that wasn't going to cut it.... So she's now the proud new owner of a Sony a390... which she LOVES... and so does her husband, Jon, who's been fighting for a chance to experiment with it.... and in his free time he's been nerding things up with the instruction manual.

But I think they were very thorough, to say the least, with the the shots that they sent over...

(See above picture of Carrie pretending to be a hobo.)

I think this would qualify as "thinking outside of the box". Ha.

(And if you also direct your attention to the second set of photos... the magazine spreads were photographed in a bush... while, very cleverly, sitting "in the shade"...)

Get it?

Like the magazine title?

Alpine Stars Pattern

So this is our third free pattern for our Hideaway line, and it's officially up and ready for download on our Free Patterns Page on our website here!
(And you can download it directly here.)

We think it's a nice one because it's relatively easy... and it's a fun way to use the entire line. It consists of 30 identical blocks that follow the Ohio Star pattern. (I've also seen this star called the Maryland Star as well as the Sawtooth Star.)

Anyway, when it's done with a more traditionally themed color palette... where all of the stars are identical, it will definitely give off that more traditional feel. But when it's created in the more scrappy technique... as shown here, it winds up creating a really nice mosaic-y feel. It becomes more intricate and the stars evolve into more of a secondary feature... rather than being a dominating visual element.

We hope you like it!!

On a side note, I know that it's difficult to find an entire line sometimes... because most stores won't generally buy entire collections. But if you're looking to create a quilt like this using our Hideaway line here are a list of stores that I've found online that are carrying the full line:

Suppose Quilt Boutique The Twiddletails Store Seamstar And Fabric.com has most of the line.

And finally, on yet another sidenote... We've just put up our new website... which I guess should be considered a work in progress, because there are still a number of things that we'd like to add. One of these things is a Where to Buy Page. So, I'll be putting together a list of stores that I find through Google, but if you'd like to email me a link to your store, I'd be happy to include you on this page. Just give me an idea of what you'll be carrying... like if you'll have the whole line... and if you're planning on doing any kits. (Because if you are doing kits, I'd love to post an entry about them... as well as provide access to your store through our website. I have a lot of people emailing me about kits, but I haven't come across any so far.)

The Other Pillow Pattern

The Windowbox Pillow was the featured pillow on our recent bloghop with Moda, but the Cuckoo Pillow is super cool too...

If you're interested in downloading the instructions for our Cuckoo Pillow Pattern... I've just uploaded it to our website so that you all can get it as a PDF. To download it directly, click here. If you want to check out all of our free patterns that are available for download, you can visit our Free Patterns Page here.

This pattern would totally work with other fabric lines too, but I think that it's neat how Hideaway became our jumping off point for its design, because in it, you'll see that the cuckoo house, the little bird, as well as the tree that we've appliquéd on the back, all can be found in our Damask print.

We were actually told to keep the cuckoo clocks to a minimum... so this fabric is the only one that has the actual clock in its entirety. Which you can see below.

The Damask took a truly ridiculous amount of time to draw up. But I love it!

It gives me butterflies!

My mom and I really enjoy including fun little surprises, so I've gone ahead and labeled most of said surprises in the diagram below. I think it's probably obvious that the cuckoo clock was our central theme... which you can see here in the center of each repeat. But we did try to take this further by exploring some of the more subtle aspects of this visual style. The stand on which the clock sits... turns into an abstracted set of deer antlers... And out of these antlers grow 6 trees, two sprigs of pine cones, and some small, folky-styled flowers.

Since we were shooting for a line that was Swiss inspired... we drew some of our inspiration from Pennsylvania Dutch Hex signs (small circular signs that the Amish / farmers in the area will hang on their barns to ward off bad luck). My mom grew up in Amish Country PA... And I'm now living very close to that area myself... so it was easy to become intrigued by this charming style of illustration. (Not to mention the fact that I will often times buy into these odd superstitions myself.) The birds that make up one of the main focal points in this print are known as the Distelfink, a.k.a. the gold finch... and in Amish culture, they symbolize good luck and happiness.

Beneath our pair of Distelfinks are some little eggs sitting within a stylized nest which we've embellished with a series of clock hands on either side. Directly above the birds is a heart (another token Hex sign symbol) within which is a small keyhole from which a little cuckoo bird is popping out its head. There are also some clock pendulums that are swinging beneath this heart.

The final little surprise is our spiderweb hidden in some of the branches. We decided in our first line that we wanted to have a secret little "Easter Egg"... and that has since become our spiderwebs that we try to cleverly work into a few patterns in each of our lines. If you want to read the entire story on these, you can check out our Easter Egg entry here... In both Botany and Hideaway you can find them in three separate patterns each.

And I think that's about all I've got for this one! I hope you all enjoy!

Ohh! And if anyone has tried to contact me through our Contact Us page on our website and you haven't heard back from me... that would be because our contact page has been a tad broken these last few weeks. I'm still trying to figure out what the problem is, but in the meantime, please contact me using the contact link here on our blog (the blue button at the very top of the page (after you've clicked on the "L+J Blog" title up at the top).

Let's Talk Pillows!

Welcome to the Pillow Talk Blog Hop : Day 15. Thanks for stopping by!

If you are new to my blog, here is a little background on what has now become quite the family affair… My mom and I started this whole venture about two years ago, right after I had finished a grad program up in graphic design. I was unemployed for a depressing 5 months… and it was during this period that our ideas started hatching. I've since moved up to Pennsylvania and we're now doing the majority of our work over the phone. Luckily, we've found that most of our tasks can be divided up... And they are as follows.

Jessi: She's in charge of all of the initial concepts/sketches for our fabric lines, as well as all of our quilt pattern designs (which includes writing the instructions, sketching the diagrams, and testing each of the patterns). She also likes to yell at me over the phone. A lot. Prior to our pattern business, she was working with her best friend and neighbor, Connie Flora. They designed the quilt planner named Plan Bee for Prym Dritz as well as creating their own series of quilt patterns.

Lauren: I work in Cranbury NJ as web designer at a software company. I also do a lot of freelance web work as well as our own fabric site... I put the entire thing together myself... which was hard!! I'm learning how to do some basic website coding, thanks to the awesome group of guys that I work with. (Thank you Ambrose, Ed... and sometimes Devin and Brian! Even though Devin and Brian have on occasion, caused me to cry myself to sleep after claiming that some of my designs have made their eyes bleed... not exactly constructive criticism...) In addition to the website stuff, I format all of our quilt patterns and create the ridiculously meticulous illustrations that accompany each instruction.

Carrie: My younger sister, Carrie, was recently dragged out to Albuquerque, NM with her husband Jon who got a secret job for the government.

Carrie is very bored now.

If you live out in that area and you want to give her a job in marketing... she's super cool and very smart. Anyway, in the meantime... we've made her our Little Project Manager / Copywriter. I'll still be writing our blog entries because I like to be long winded... And I don't think Carrie has it in her to capture the subtle nuances of my extreme ADHD. But she'll be doing the copywriting for the website... She's under the impression that websites shouldn't sound like some "ridiculous stream of consciousness that no one bothered to proofread". This is based off of the stuff that she learned while getting her masters in marketing... so who am I to argue with that logic, right? (For the record... I do proofread... and my streams of consciousness are almost always grammatically correct.)

And well, my dad is sort of in on it too... he's in charge of anything that involves math.

Because we hate math.

Beau (my fiance), Peter (my BFF at work), Brianna, Jason, and Julie (plus the four guys mentioned a few paragraphs back): This group makes up my team of moral support. (The first two guys emailed today and told me that they were mad that there was no mention of them on my credits list. So there you go Beau and Peter. :) )

When tasked with the project of making a pillow that represented us, my mom and I went back and forth between entirely too many ideas that were…well… sub par. And that’s just not how we Jungs roll. Luckily though, with a little bit of patience we finally came to a pillow design that my mom and I are proud to offer our readers, thanks to our adorable dog Rudy. (See above)

Rudy is our dog, and we love him more than people should ever love their pets. (I say this because my mother mentioned once that she would jump in front of car to save him... Which, I don't know... sounds a bit unhealthy to me. But can you really blame her... Look at him!!) Anyway. Rudy thinks that he is our guard dog. (Yes I know... he's a very tough looking little Westie.) He sits up at the window seat in my parents living room and scans the front yard for any suspicious activity. He'll then bark and warn us if anyone is up to no good.

So this pillow will at some point become Rudy's guard dog pillow. That he can lean on while he's keeping watch by the window... Perhaps a bit of a stretch, but that's our story and we're sticking to it.

We especially like this pattern because it helps to show off our hilltown pattern. This particular pattern is extra cool because it has a bunch of little secrets hidden within the landscape. If you look hard, you'll see a chimney sweep, a little fisherman catching a fish, a waterwheel, some deer, a little bridge with children playing nearby, a bum with a liquor bottle up in a balcony, Rudy (our dog) is in the town square, a quilt that is hanging up on a washline... and more. It's quite a lot of fun!

With that in mind, the window theme seemed like a natural choice. I mean how cool would it be to look out your window each day to see this awesome little town.

You can download the pattern for free here. It is one of 6 free patterns that we have available on our website! You can view all of them here.

Also in the spirit of free stuff, my mom and I are giving away full fat quarter sets of Hideaway to TWO lucky winners. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. We will announce the two winners in a week!

If you don't know how to comment... Don't worry! Blogs are confusing sometimes. Up at the top of this entry, click on the title. This will take you to the area where you can comment. At the bottom of the page you will see a comment box where you will then be prompted to post your comment, your email address and your name. Then just click "Post Comment". And that's it!! You're done!

And finally, the much anticipated pillow talk questions…

What is a little known fact about you?

LAUREN / I CAN’T cook. In fact, I’ve been known to burn Ramen noodles (permanently adhering them to the bottom of the pot), turn quiche into quiche soup, and thoroughly botch the process of making a grilled cheese.

JESSI / I know sign language. I had to learn it for my first job at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind.

How do you relax?

LAUREN / When I actually have free time… I LOVE to watch my retro detective shows: Magnum PI, Simon and Simon, Murder She Wrote, and Matlock.

JESSI / Solving the worlds problems with the company of my best friends and a cappuccino (and maybe a little bit of chocolate).

What do you sleep in - PJ's or NightGown?

LAUREN / I'm partial to black exercise pants and a wife-beater.

JESSI / Any flannel PJ pants and a t-shirt.

What kind of pillow do you like, Hard or soft, foam or feather? And why?

LAUREN / I can sleep on just about anything… a brick floor would be no problem for me. It's almost like a super power.

JESSI / I like hard pillows, and I am allergic to down, so that eliminates the feather option. Also, I love flannel pillowcases almost as much as flannel PJs.

When you were young did you sleep with a stuffed animal? If so what?

LAUREN / I used to sleep with a stuffed polar bear that I cleverly named “Bear”.

JESSI / I slept with my real miniature poodle, Martini. I’m not sure how much he liked the sleeping arrangement though.

Do you sew in bed? Read? Watch TV? eat?

LAUREN / On the weekends I don’t get out of bed…so all of the above... and then some.

JESSI / I stay in my studio until I can’t keep my eyes open.

How many nights have you or your spouse spent on the couch?

LAUREN / I don't have a husband... yet. So only time will tell.

JESSI / My husband, Chip, has a bad habit of falling asleep on the La-z-Boy most nights.

Nighttime toddy?

LAUREN / When I was younger, my dad used to put me to bed with a glass of water that he called “Super Water”. The term stuck, and I still REQUIRE a glass of “Super Water” before bed.

JESSI / I’m not much of a drinker, but I do love a little bit of chocolate at night.

Early to bed or all-nighter?

LAUREN / Most definitely a night owl. I think I'm nocturnal.

JESSI / Since I discovered fabric designing, I’ve been a night person.

Who would you most like to have a pillow fight with?

LAUREN / Brad Pit, Jake Jyllenhal, Johnny Dep...

JESSI / I would love to hit Lauren with a pillow when she doesn’t do what I say. Kidding! Sort of.

Thanks again for stopping by. Don't forget to enter our giveaway by leaving a comment on our post! And if you liked our blog, stop by our Facebook Fan Page and click LIKE up at the top of the screen (beside our names). The next stop on the Blog Hop is Sweetwater!

Oh, and... if you want to see the entire line... check out our fabrics page on our website!!

Garden Tea Party

We're super excited to announce that this wall-hanging pattern is one of four that we've just introduced at Market this summer... Yaya!!

Each of these patterns took a long time to design but I'm so pleased with the final results. We started the process by collectively sketching out our preliminary ideas onto graph paper... my mom then took these rough sketches and turned them into fabric mockups. Next, she refined the designs into what was to become the final quilt. As she constructed the quilt for the second time, she wrote up all of the necessary instructions... She did one more test run in order to ensure accuracy as well as to create the final quilt that was sent off for photographs (taken by my friend Megan).

I was in charge of all the diagrams... a project that I found to be excruciatingly tedious. To a non-quilter (like myself) the instructions that my mom handed over to me could have been in another language and they wouldn't have been any less helpful. It took a lot of back-and-forth between the two of us before I was able to wrap my mind around what the diagrams needed to convey.

Prior to starting my diagram task, I looked at a number of other quilt patterns in order to gain some inspiration and incite into what makes a pattern successful. And though some of them were nicely designed, I wasn't able to understand any of them... something that I would find very frustrating if I were a new quilter (just having bought that pattern which turned out to be indecipherable).

Though I've never actually experienced the feeling of a botched quilt pattern... I've had my fair share of kitchen mishaps that have left me dinnerless on more than one occasion. Because... if you think about it... it's not just the pattern/recipe that you've wasted. It's the fabric/food that got ruined due to said mishap.

So with that in mind, we made it our mission to create patterns that anyone can use! Each cover shows a photograph of the quilt on the front... with the dimensions, supplies, and description on the back. On the inside of the cover is a gridded/color-coded placement chart that quilters can use while placing their appliqué pieces.

One thing that I found annoying with most appliqué templates is the mess of overlapping lines that you come across. I realize that overlapping saves paper, but it gets to be very confusing. We decided to maintain the overlapping line layout (because we're an environmentally conscious company), but we decided to color-code our templates. Each piece contains a color-coded number, outline, and brief description, so that there's no chance of mixing things up.

Our sheet of instructions is very easy to understand because each step contains a corresponding diagram. So if you're a visual person, you could get pretty far without actually having to read anything at all. If you're like me... and prefer to read the instructions first, then check the diagrams to make sure that you're understanding them correctly, then you, too, will be all set. Whoo-hoo!

So with that all being said, please don't hesitate to contact us if you find yourself in the middle of our pattern with a question. Shoot me an email and we'll help you through it! (We want our instructions to be for all levels, so feedback will really help us out!)

And... last but not least... I recently had a quilt shop owner named Vicky contact me because she was interested in "kitting" two of our patterns... something that my mom and I both think would work really well with this particular group. She asked me for the specific sku numbers (of fabric in our quilt) before placing her order with her sales rep... so that the fabric inside the kit would match the fabric used on our covers. (Currently orders can be placed with United Notions.)

In case anyone else is interested in that info... I'll post the sku numbers along with the necessary dimensions for each of the remaining three patterns in the next few blog entries. (And if you need that info before those posts are up, you can contact me directly by clicking here.