Christmas in July: Mulberry Lane

 It's the middle of July...the sun is shining...flowers are blooming...

So of course it's the perfect time to start planning for Christmas! 

Over the next two weeks, we'll be sharing all things winter holiday related with you. The fabrics are available in stores now, so you can get started on your favorite reindeer, snowflake, or Christmas tree quilt pattern now and be done before the holiday rush begins! 

Crank up the air conditioning, pull out your wool hat, and enjoy our Christmas in July series!

Take a trip to Mulberry Lane today, Cherry Guidry's new holiday collection. These scenic fabrics are so adorable that you'll want to move right in! We asked Cherry to tell us about Mulberry Lane. 

What inspired the Mulberry Lane collection?

When my children were young, we lived in a town with a quaint little street called Mulberry Lane. These homes were decked out to the max for the holidays, and it was one of our favorite roads to visit around Christmas.

Tell us about a few of your favorite prints.

There’s the little street scene with all the cars. I love the street, the movement going on, and all the snowflakes.

I also love the holiday fun print—it has the little bubbles with scenes in them.

I really love what happened with the blenders in this collection. There are six different colors, and they works so well for applique. Plus, these can stretch into the entire winter season, not just Christmas.

How did you come up with your palette?

Of course we had to bring the aqua back—I started with a deeper turquoise that you see in the snowflakes. There’s also a darker blue in here. I love the non traditional holiday colors, but I still wanted to include red and green. I love the way the lime works with the bright red.

Can you talk about the patterns you’ve designed using Mulberry Lane?

First there’s the Mulberry Lane quilt, a good sized throw. It’s all applique; blown up versions of the houses, cars and scenes in the fabric. I especially love the little row of cars at the bottom. All my patterns are available with SVG files, so if anyone wants to cut the applique pieces that way, they can.

Snow Crystal—I love stylized shapes, and this snowflake is no exception. It could be Christmas-y, but depending on the palette, it can work all through the winter. I love the open space ready for fabulous free motion quilting.

With Winter Star, I wanted to include more piecing. In the center of each block is an appliqued snowflake. There are two sizes—one bed-sized, and the other more of a throw.

I have the vintage ornament quilt along on we all sew.

I’m also doing a quilt along on Bernina’s Blog, We All Sew. It’s called the Vintage Ornament Quilt. The idea came from playing with an Irish Chain design. I wanted to see how I could include applique in with some type of simple chain. I have four more blocks to post (one each month), so there’s plenty of time to join in. At the end, I’ll talk about how to quilt it.

Thanks, Cherry! Cherry has offered to give away three free patterns (Mulberry Lane, Snow Crystal, and Winter Star). For a chance to win one of these patterns, leave a comment below letting us know which fabric you like best in her collection and why. Giveaway open through Monday, July 24th at 11:50 pm EDT. 

We also have a free quilt pattern available on our website, Snowy Village, using the panel from Cherry's collection. 

Click here to download the free pattern.

Click here to see the entire Mulberry Lane collection.

Click here to find the free quilt pattern. 

Click here to visit Cherry's website, and find her patterns and blog.