Our Story

Meet the original Julee-Bug!  That's right - my name's not Julee... and neither is hers!  I'm Kirsten, owner/operator of Julee-Bug Quilt Shop, and this is my 4-year-old daughter, Juliette, my own sweet Julee-Bug, who inspired the name for our little shop.  She's a spirited little firecracker that firmly believes that she can do anything if she really puts her mind to it!  So after months of whimsical daydreaming of having my own fabric and quilting business, it seemed completely fitting that my real-life endeavor be named after her. 

The idea began small.  "I think I'll post my 'kitchen quilts' on Etsy," I told my husband, Keith.  As usual, he was agreeable.  I say this in the most loving and complimenting way, for he is truly the guy that tells your dad on the day of your wedding that he'll do anything to make you happy... and actually meant it.  He supports me in everything I do.  And believe me, sometimes I question his sanity for doing so because sometimes I think I'm crazy!  As a secondary public school teacher and theatre director raising four children between the ages of two and ten, taking on such a big project seemed like an impossible, hare-brained scheme, even for me!  BUT... it's the ideas that keep tugging at you in the back of your mind that you need to embrace and dive into!

Though the idea may be young, I am no stranger to the sewing and quilting scene.  My teaching subject area is Family and Consumer Sciences (known to many as Home Economics), and I've been teaching the basics of hand and machine sewing to 8th grader students for the past 10 years.  As a theatre director for middle and high school, I've been sewing costume pieces in all themes and styles for over 15 years, starting with altering purchased Goodwill dresses and evolving to designing and creating completely new costume plots for the shows I direct.  I always adored quilts and was in awe at their intricacy.  It wasn't until my daughter's thoughtfully gifted but poorly made quilt fell part after washing it once.  It had not been actually quilted, but was more of a pieced top sewn around the perimeter to batting and backing.  The stitching was coming out of the piecing and the batting had completely balled up inside.  She was a devastated 5-year-old.  So I promised her that I would make her a new one, this time to match her Disney Frozen themed bedroom.  Thus a monster was created.  Suddenly I was designing a pattern, shopping for fabric, and you-tubing and google searching anything I could find that would teach me the proper steps to creating a beautiful, well-made quilt.  Since that first project, I've gone on to create numerous quilted items, from placemats (like those available here on our site) to a full-size bed quilt for that same daughter (now ten)!

And so an adored hobby became a dreamy little idea and now a reality.  How we went from a simple Etsy shop to all that you find here, I'm really not sure.  In the words of Dr. Seuss, "it started in low, then it started to grow!"  Somehow over the course of a month, we weren't just prepping quilted kitchen linens, but ALSO contacting suppliers, working with a stellar team to create our independent website, and spending countless hours planning, designing, creating, sewing and organizing!  Talk about a barrel roll!

While our shop is still very young, we are learning and growing more everyday!  Our ultimate goal is to expand our inventory of quilting fabrics, notions and patterns to be able to provide our customers with the best quality options that we have personally tested and recommend 100%!  We also aspire to grow our Quilted Kitchen selection, as I love being in my kitchen almost as much as I love quilting, and bringing the two together makes me smile!  I am not a machine, so I cannot promise perfection when it comes to my handmade selection, but I am an absolute perfectionist by genetics, so I can promise you it will as close as I can humanly manage!  If you have any suggestions or requests for items we should add to our inventory that will help you in your quilting journey, please don't hesitate to share with us via our contact page!  We are also on Facebook and Instagram, and hope you will follow our pages there too!  Thanks so much for your support of our shop!  We are so grateful that you are joining our quilting family and taking the journey with us!  As always, Happy Quilting!