Rainbow Autumn Leaves

Rainbow Autumn Leaves, 19" x 12", #6- to 8-cut wool on linen. Designed and hooked by Hayley Perry, Warren, Rhode Island, 2019.

A pile of fallen leaves is a lot like a hooked rug. Many leaves come together to create a colorful and crispy pile, just as many parts of the rug come together to make a design. You can examine each leaf individually or step back and admire the whole pile.

I wanted to examine the relationship between the positive space of the leaves and negative space around the leaves. Leaf shapes are familiar and iconic, making them a great motif to abstract and play with. I decided that the shapes of oak and birch trees would be recognizable and also easily hidden in the colorful rug. 

This simple but beautiful design would look great expanded into a larger rug, or repeated horizontally to make a longer runner. The colorful shapes are a wonderful way to de-stash your extra worms and experiment with color. I made my leaves all the colors of the rainbow, but you could simplify your palette to just autumn colors, like reds and yellows, to emphasize the seasonal theme even more.