I Love Blog Hops!

So we're gearing up for our third blog hop and we can't be more excited about the projects that we've created!

The Country Fair Blog Hop is a month long event, during which, Moda designers will be posting projects daily that are country-fair-ish in style and theme. It should be lots of fun! And!! There should be lots of awesome giveaways. You can read more about it at the Moda Cutting Table.

We plan on giving away a fat-quarter bundle made up of our newest line, Flora, to TWO of our blog-commenters... For those of you who don't know... fat quarter bundles are a lot of fabric (see pictures below)... so be ready for our day! (We're on the 24th.)

If you want to keep up with it... the order is as follows:

SEPTEMBER 6 : Sandy Gervais of Pieces from My Heart SEPTEMBER 7 : Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs SEPTEMBER 8 : Barb and Mary from Me and My Sister Designs SEPTEMBER 9 : Camille Roskelley of Thimble Blossoms SEPTEMBER 10 : Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts SEPTEMBER 11 : Basic Grey  SEPTEMBER 12 :  Polly and Laurie from Minick and Simpson SEPTEMBER 13 : Sandy Klop from American Jane (Moda's blog) SEPTEMBER 14 : Liesl from Oliver + S SEPTEMBER 15 :  Joanna from Fig Tree and Co SEPTEMBER 16 :  Lynne from Kansas Troubles SEPTEMBER 17 : Barb and Alma from Blackbird Designs SEPTEMBER 18 : Aneela Hoey from Comfortstitching.com SEPTEMBER 19 : Barbara Brackman from Barbara Brackman SEPTEMBER 20 : Bonnie from Cotton Way SEPTEMBER 21 : Christina from Cabbages and Roses SEPTEMBER 22 : Deb Strain SEPTEMBER 23 : Jan Patek of Brannock and Patek SEPTEMBER 24 :  Lauren and Jessi Jung Whoohoo! This is us! SEPTEMBER 25 : Stephanie from Lily Ashbury SEPTEMBER 26 : Julie from Cosmo Cricket SEPTEMBER 27 :  Kate Spain SEPTEMBER 28 : Karla, Susan and Lisa from Sweetwater SEPTEMBER 29 : Kaari from French General SEPTEMBER 30 : Lisa from Primitive Gatherings OCTOBER 1 : Kathy from Kathy Schmitz Studio OCTOBER 2 : Liz from Liz Scott Designs

Australian Quilters Companion

This month we were featured in TWO sections,
as well as on the cover of an Australian quilt magazine!
(see above)

The first section showcases a quilt that uses one of our earlier fabric lines, Botany. It's designed by Liz Pinczewski and quilted by her friend, Adri, a professional long arm quilter... both from Australia. The quilt is called Coco's Midnight Garden... named after her dog, Coco. (We're all over the "quilts named after pets" idea... my mom once designed a quilt that we have hanging up in our studio named Rudy Rules... after our sweet boy, Rudy.)

Liz has a super cute write-up about the whole experience on her blog, Quilterie.

Her quilt design is a nice modern take on the traditional Log Cabin block, and it's especially great because it requires only 1 jelly role... plus batting, backing, and some dark background fabric... which is awesome... jelly roles definitely make it possible to use an entire line of fabric without completely breaking the bank!

The second article that we're in is actually a write-up... ON US! Entitled "Meet the Jungs: Lauren and Jessi". And as far as write-ups go, this covers everything... each of our backgrounds, our start-up, the team dynamics, our first two fabric lines, plus, about ten photos of various projects we've done using these two lines. It's absolutely unbelievable... And really, a bit surreal... and we both couldn't be happier with it!

(This magazine is published in Australia, however it's available here in the US at various book stores as well as Amazon... but I haven't seen this particular issue yet.... probably later on this summer.)

Our first lineof scrapbooking paper...and then some other somewhat unrelated topics

OK, so it has been a very long time since I've blogged...
But I have a darn good excuse...
I met someone!

I'm not entirely sure if we're officially defining ourselves as boyfriend/girlfriend yet, but I'm choosing the presumptuous route and calling him my boyfriend... because in all seriousness, I'm pretty sure that he won't be reading up on my scrapbooking endeavors. But anyway, about a month ago I started taking salsa-dancing classes... in hopes of jumpstarting my rather embarrassing social life (...or lack there of). And that's where I met Atul!!! Who I think is fantastic! ...And funny... and smart... and smoking hot...

And so... I'm going to go ahead and blame every bit of my slackness this past month on him. My mom does too. She calls me just about every day to yell at me about something that I forgot and to tell me to knock off the excessive amount of dating that I've been doing. :)

Anyway, Atul is on a three week long business trip right now... so I have time to catch up on blogging, our website, our next fabric line, etc. And when he gets back... I'll have to put my foot down with this "being attached at the hip thing" that we have going on right now.

So paper products... I have always been a big fan of them.

And this love began sometime in my early childhood... thanks to my mom who really encouraged my sister and I to explore our creative sides. As children, we were never short on construction paper, pipecleaners, an assortment of drawing materials, and scotch tape... (LOTS of scotch tape...) with which we created small huts, dressup clothes, Barbie accessories, food for our fisher-price kitchen, etc.

And this love for paper continued to grow through various art classes in both high school and then college.

...But it wasn't until I was going to grad school in Atlanta (for graphic design at the Portfolio Center) and taking a bookmaking class with one of my favorite teachers there, Anne Elser, that my love for paper turned into the beautiful obsession that it is today. And on that same sidenote... I had four or five great classes with Anne, who has quite a wide variety of specialties... hand-lettering, bookmaking, painting... (See below.)

And prior to her... I never really cared much for "hand-made" graphic design. I would generally opt for things made in the computer. But she has a way of opening her students up... and guiding them towards new ways of thinking... and designing. And with her, I learned that sometimes its the marks and subtle imperfections left behind by the artists... that are unavoidable when something is made by hand... that give a design its unique voice and character. It adds back in the human-element that is so often missing from designs that come directly from the computer. Anyway, this tangent is a bit unrelated to my scrapbooking blog post (as was the entire boyfriend intro that came at the beginning of this entry) but I was just on Facebook and saw that Anne had a post up about how Martha Stewart Weddings has asked for her calligraphy samples. How cool is that!!

Anyway... on to scrapbooking!!! We love it!

And we have recently come out with our first scrapbooking line, Hideaway, that we've designed for a craft company in the UK named Trimcraft. (See above.) It is available in three sizes that come in both glittered and non-glittered paper! Which is awesome!!!

This line is based off of our second fabric line... but it has really evolved quite a bit since then. The patterns themselves have become a little more simplified, the repeats are now much smaller, and the colors are more like muted sherberts than the swiss/alpine theme that we used in the original (fabric) version. And you can check out the final line below. (This is the cover that they sent over for our approval, so I'm not positive that this is what the final version looks like.) Anyway, we're quite pumped about this new venture and hope that there will be many future lines to follow!!

(And if anyone has some cool pictures of this line in action, please send them our way and we'll add them to our website gallery!)

Be@Home

This week we were featured on Be@Home, a blog that showcases people with a passion for cross-stitching, sewing, quilting, and playing with different fabrics. It's part of a larger blog called Pocket Change which brings together several niche shopping blogs all into one area. Which is cool!

My Business Cards: And Why They Feel Delicious...

Right before Market, we printed our second round of business cards... this time, professionally, due to some extremely painful memories from last time... (when we decided to make them ourselves).

The idea behind this design is to have our logo knocked out of the front, revealing one of the fabrics from our current line. This allows them to constantly change... while highlighting whatever's new. Then on the back, you'll find that same swatch of fabric acting as the background of the card... with a small tag that contains all of our contact info. (The longer story behind our logo and business cards can be found here.)

And I just think they're beautiful.

And beautiful cards need to be printed on beautiful paper.

Which is where our printer, (Moo), stepped up to the plate... enabling us to create a truly magical experience for anyone who is able to touch/caress/sometimes, even lick these cards.

They feel delicious.

Maybe even a little seductive.

The paper stock is thick and rigid with a surface coating that feels sort of like silk...

Silk that has been fused with waxpaper... (which, in my opinion, should probably be called silax-paper).

And they do all of this by using a "matte laminate"... which they claim will also protect your cards from getting dirty.

And I am here to back that up, because I literally had my cards out in the mud today for my little photo shoot... From which they returned completely unharmed.

Yay!

I love Moo!