Hi Everyone,

The next project I am going to focus on is the Tropical Triptych amazing Heidi. Heidi wanted her triptych to show her love of the beach and hot weather. Seriously, when it is 100 degrees and humid as all get out, Heidi is in heaven! The rest of us might be complaining but not her! Heidi loves to spend time at the beach, on cruises, and generally relaxing and enjoying the summer weather. 

Heidi made up a pattern with the assistance of Cotey. She chose to incorporate a palm tree, Miami vice cocktail (layers of pina colada, and strawberry daiquiri), and flip flops into her pattern.

You can see above Heidi using stock images as inspiration to color plan out her project. She had a good stockpile of fine yarns that she could use, and some great yarns from Judith Hotchkiss that are fantastic for shading. Heidi also wanted to make sure that the color flowed really well from one panel to the next. With triptychs it's really easy to have discord with the colors if you don't make sure that you plan it out to flow. She used the same blues for the water and sky, as her flip flops, the same sandy color for backgrounds and sand on her beach.

To punch her Tropical Triptych, Heidi decided to punch with the number #13 fine Oxford Punch Needle for her palm tree, drink, and flip flops. She also chose the #14 fine Oxford Punch Needle for her background. The reason she decided to do this was to add dimension to her triptych. The loop height for the #13 fine is taller than the loop height for the #14 fine. By using the shorter loop height for her background she is controlling the main focus of her triptych.

Looking at the back of her work you can see her perfect tidy stitches and how she skipped a row in between rows for proper packing. You will also notice that she adjusted her stitches in her palm leaves. They are in every hole, every row, adjusting for the fiber thickness. 

Heidi is really a pro at punching, You will see how she subtly shifted her stitches from straight across to a soft wave as she moved up to the water. Then when she got back to the skyline she straightened out the stitches. The sky she also gave some movement to with her stitches and a nice puffiness to the clouds. 

 

The water also shifts very gracefully from foamy white, through the lush blues of the water until it hits the horizon point where the water is a rich dark color as it mixes with the blue of the sky. Heidi's artistic ability to pull this off in a picture perfect way is really amazing. 

 

From here, Heidi moved on to her border, punching it with both a #10 regular Oxford Punch Needle and a #10 fine punch needle.  Using the same color in both worsted and rug yarn, she was able to make the border thickness how she wanted it, and keep the loop height consistant. This is the wonderful thing about having the #8, #9, and #10 in both fine and regular. It allows you to alternate yarn, fine and rug, but have the loop height remain the same length, giving it a cohesive look. She also wanted the loop height in the border to be longer than the loop height for the rest of the picture. 

She worked on her middle panel after she did the basic border. The drink was straight forward for her to punch. She did make the layered drink look as though it had been poured in organically. 

For her flip flops, Heidi did a really gorgeous color gradation in the soles of the sandals. She had the colors shift from a beautiful emerald green to her favorite blue, plus she added shading in the thongs with orange and yellow. 

I love how her Triptych looks like she just sat down at the beach, drink in hand, looking out at the panoramic view. It tells a very distinct narrative that I think many of us know well. Summer days, sweat beading on our foreheads, running out into the spray of water to cool down, before plopping back down on a towel, reading a good mystery/romance/biography, and enjoying the sun warming us to our bones.