Autumn Encircled

Autumn Encircled transforms an everyday functional object into a study of rhythm, repetition, and color.

Created by Christina Vanderveer using Roma Lambson’s Jelly Roll Rug pattern, the piece is built from a continuous progression of fabric bands that travel around the elongated oval form. The construction immediately draws the eye inward, each successive ring becoming part of a larger visual movement rather than existing as an isolated strip.

The fabrics from Deb Strain’s I Love Fall Most of All collection for Moda Fabrics bring an unexpectedly fresh interpretation of autumn. Rather than relying solely on the deep rusts and browns often associated with the season, Christina’s palette moves between soft aqua, warm cream, golden orange, botanical greens, and rich navy. Tiny pumpkins, florals, foliage, checks, and other seasonal motifs appear and disappear as the fabric travels around the rug.

That shifting scale is one of the piece’s most engaging qualities. From a distance, the eye first reads broad bands of color: pale mint against navy, warm gold against cream. Up close, those bands dissolve into individual prints, stitched edges, subtle pattern changes, and small seasonal details waiting to be discovered.

The darker navy fabrics provide an especially effective visual framework. They appear periodically throughout the composition and form a substantial outer edge, preventing the lighter colors from becoming overly delicate while giving the entire rug a finished sense of weight and definition.

The construction itself becomes part of the ornamentation. Rows of stitching follow the curves of the oval, emphasizing its repeated contours, while visible decorative stitching along several fabric transitions introduces another quiet layer of texture. At the narrow inner turns, the fabric bends tightly back upon itself, allowing the viewer to appreciate just how much shaping is required to transform long strips of fabric into a smooth, continuous form.

There is also something particularly appropriate about seeing Autumn Encircled presented vertically. Removed temporarily from its expected place beneath our feet, the rug’s graphic qualities become much easier to appreciate: line, repetition, contrast, texture, and the relationship between dozens of individual fabrics working together as one composition.

What begins as a practical object becomes, upon closer examination, a reminder that textile artistry does not depend upon where an object ultimately lives.

Sometimes art meets us at eye level. And sometimes, it asks us to change where we look.