Life Happens

Is it has been quite a while since I have uploaded anything. Yet again. Technology doesn't get my best side. 

Well, since I last posted I was going to make an effort to sew and draw some more. That all got pretty stalled due to life getting in the way. My dad had a heart attack and I flew back to the great dairyland to spend some time with the family. He made it through alright, however he definitely has to make some changes, and I believe he has done very well. With that trip I got some sketches done while I waited at the airport, and spent my fair amount of time on Pintrest looking at some quilts and such, just getting inspired. Then not too long after my return I was trying to get caught back up in life when, yet again, life happened and I lost my job. So much for that fantastic bike shop job... Some people just aren't sales material.

At this point all that was good and going for me was cycling, and even that was a struggle. Sometimes when your world seems to crash, it's hard to keep the motivation to ride 10+hours a week on the bike alone. Unless you meet a guy... On bikes. A really fantastic one. Sometimes life just happens. Because of this fantastic guy, I worked out more than I would have, I had more reasons to hop on my bike, I began to enjoy the rollers, and I got the opportunity to work for a web design/advertising company for a week during this unemployment adventure. (Unfortunately it won't be able to work out full time, but I'm still thrilled that I have been able to take this time and really figure things out.) I know I like this guy. He's fantastic in so many ways and good for me. I like my life. I spend lunch break riding rollers with my boyfriend. I spend my Wednesday nights at the track volunteering, and some weekends working bike races as a USA Cycling official. I sometimes even get to race myself. 

Sure, things aren't perfect by any means right now, but being unemployed has let me really think about what I enjoy and what I might wanna do. I'm still not entirely certain, but yesterday I got re inspired to sew and to draw. When I did those and compared to working a week along the lines of graphic design, I realized that I do have talent. I do have skill, and I am happiest when I feel like I can use them. This week and the weeks to come I will continue to sew and draw and create some collections and make a plan and flyer for quilt classes. I will continue to look for jobs that have to do with textiles. I like to draw. I like to work with my hands. And I like to ride my bike. Even though it's a mental struggle for me at the moment, I wanna hit 300 miles this week. The world is my limit.

Below are some pictures of my recent adventures. They range from my amazing boyfriend racing, my good friend Darel being an awesome person friend and bike racer, to the new quilt block I did yesterday and the beginning of my drawings...

Kevin racing at Athens Twilight.

Darel. He's a hard worker and fast racer.

My coach Kat (right), her husband a little man, and Debbie. 

Because I can. This is how I spend lunch. riding rollers with that guy :)

Though I'm nowhere near pro, hopefully next year I can be closer and race these again confidently and take matters in my own hands.

Re inspired to sew. Thanks Pintrest and all you amazing quilters out there!

I can see a watercolor in those leaves. That'll make a beautiful element to a pattern...

It's been a while

Hi there everyone!

It's been quite a while since my last post and a bunch has happened since then. Since the last time I checked in with all of you, I was working on my last quarter in college. Well, this month would mark almost exactly 2 years ago that I attended my last quarter of college. I was most definitely working on some cool projects in my eyes, and they are still something I would like to explore. For now, I will tell you what's going on currently.

Since graduation, I had to slow down my running due to pain and injury. But don't you worry, I picked up cycling. I've always somewhat worked with the cycling industry since high school, so it was only a matter of time... Well here I am now living in the big ol' city of Atlanta. I worked for the company Blue Force Gear (www.blueforcegear.com) for about exactly a year before I decided that the military industry wasn't for me. I highly value the knowledge and experience that I gained from working in such a different industry, but it just wasn't quite hitting the happy button enough for me, so with my growing interest in cycling, I decided it was time to pursue the sports industry path again. 

Low and behold, I got a job with a fantastic bike shop-- Atlanta Cycling. So back in December, I took a shot in the dark, picked up and moved. Now I live here in Marietta, and of course since my work industry flip flopped, so did my hobby interest, and I am back to wanting to reintroduce my design work and quilting. My mother gave me the inspiration and push to pursue quilting, and now over the next few years, I will make as much effort as I can to see what I can do there. For now, it's all about me exploring quilting techniques and patterns and getting back into the practice of making samples.

Though the past couple weeks have put a hiccup in my productivity, here are some of the samples that I have started.

Finals Are Approaching (too soon)

Well, in two weeks I will be graduating college which is scary to think about. I don't currently have a job lined up or anything, but something will work out I'm sure. I just wanted to update and show my current progress on a couple of my projects. I have recently been working on embroidering maps and quilting. Once I have completed my portfolio I will be sure to post it. Enjoy and happy May!

Tracks, Maps, Quilts, and Life.

Right now I am in Miami. And it is great weather--overcast and a comfortable temperature. I am here for the Sun Conference Track Meet.. day 3 of 3. Things are going well, we've had a couple of teammates win events (such as 10k and javelin) and a couple second place finishes (1500 and 4x800) as well as a third place finish in the women's 1500. For a distance track team, Id have to say "go us". A few more events and we will be on our 7.5 hour drive back to Savannah.

I have been making progress on my embroidered maps and am almost completely done with one. The Wisconsin map as seen below. In the end I think 40 hours of work will have been put into it. And I still have 2 more maps to embroider. On top of all my other homework. It will be an exciting last 6 weeks of college...

My next update is that I have finished the back of my most recent quilt and am on my way to finishing quilting it. I'm really excited for this one and think it will end up being my favorite. Can't wait to show you!

Lastly, I am a senior this year and boy has it ever been an adventure. I will be graduating in June where my family plans to come and visit me and enjoy a vacation on Tybee Island in celebration. Currently I don't have any immediate future plans, no job lined up and no idea what I am going to do. As scary as that is, I'm kind of excited by me not planning everything and having it all planned out..like usual. Sometimes ya gotta get lost to find your way. Lots of stuff has happened while getting lost and I'm not sure if all of it is good or bad. But I like to stay optimistic and will claim that even if it was "bad" that I can take away from the "bad" things and call them learning experiences. Everyday I learn something new and quite often something new about myself. I will end this by saying that life is good, the world is my limit and there are endless possibilities.

If you are interested in seeing more of my work, check out my online portfolio at behance.net/hriniker

Current projects

This is my last quarter here at SCAD, so it's kind of GO TIME and I'm definitely feeling it. In a positive way. At 430 today, my first "week" of classes will be finished and I feel as though I have already made a lot of progress.

Last quarter I was working on making "barn quilts", and I accomplished one and am still in the process of finishing another, which I have posted a pic of what it will look like below. Then, at the end of the quarter I came up with and idea that goes back to the seed of my embroidered leaves. I started those by embroidering a map. And I loved that idea but took it somewhere else with the leaves....then I moved onto quilting and I've had a lot of that so I thought I would go into exploring embroidery again. So I am back to exploring embroidering a map. But nothing straightforward. I would like to embroider repeat patterns on top of them. Use the map as the background. So I have done a couple samples of them that I've posted. To add to that, as I was walking back from class one day I realized that I don't always get to appreciate the hidden beauty of Savannah..... such as the iron railings....which I could ABSTRACT BEAUTIFUL PATTERNS FROM!!! It was a revelation. Before I was just thinking of doing geometric patterns to contrast with the very organic map background. But I will see where this ends up. Until then, enjoy my progress and see where I got some inspiration from. :)

A new quarter

Well, its a new quarter. My last quarter of school actually. I can't really tell how its starting off. Spring break was great....yet I feel it was kinda a doozy. I had a lot of fun, which means I wasn't productive. I wanted to share some pictures with you of the Appalachian trail. Though St. Patrick's in Savannah is pretty much where its at, the Appalachian Trail was the highlight of my spring break.

New quilt!

Alright, so I really haven't been good on updating my blog...technology isn't my thing or top priority.  BUT I will try my best to update on my current quilt. Here are the starting of the next one, and for the first time I am using all printed fabric.

So my pictures are of my initial sketches and design for the quilt. Since the drawings, the design has changed due to sizes of pieces that I wanted to cut and sew. The good news is that I may continue with this basic pattern and find many ways to change it up. I have also included a picture of the back of the quilt. One day I would like to make a quilt where the back is actually the top. (Meaning seam allowance is on top). I added a picture of my work station, and lastly my current progress. I plan to make the quilt queen size so its going to be a repeat of 4x4 blocks with borders at top and bottom ends. I have no idea how I'm making the back yet, but I'm forming ideas of how I would like to quilt it. Probably similar to my last quilt, keeping it geometric.  I will have to post a blog of my previous quilt and other project progress. But for now, enjoy! :)