About Miss Hunt
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Nileen Hunt Nileen Hunt playing Van Cliburn's Steinway

Nileen Hunt playing "Carolina in
the Morning" on Van Cliburn's
personal home Steinway
(the piano was on tour)


My home is Raleigh, North Carolina.  We moved here when I was 10 years old, and that's also when Mother began teaching me to sew my own clothes.  Both my grandmothers, one great-grandmother, and a great-aunt were quilters, so Mother and I each have treasured collections of family quilts.

When I was a child, drawing was one of my favorite pastimes (as it is for many children) and I still have a large box of childhood drawings.  In college, I was able to fit in a few art courses -- but early on I decided to major in something that might pay, and to keep art as a hobby.  Hence -- math.

Armed with undergraduate and graduate degrees in math, my first and only salaried job (discounting the usual college jobs of waitressing in a restaurant and clerking in a school office) was with RTI, a contract research organization.  After graduate school, working at RTI felt as though I'd died and gone to heaven.  During the early years I enjoyed it so much that I was amazed that I actually got paid to do it.

As with most paid employment, things changed over time.  With increasing responsibilities, my RTI work became less and less fun, and then became actually unpleasant.  Many days I dreaded going to work.  So, on a sudden impulse, I pulled a "Johnny Paycheck" -- one Monday I drove to work, went to the personnel office, and resigned on the spot ("Take this job and shove it"), then got in my car and drove back home.

This was my chance to once again try to do something I enjoyed.  I signed up for a few college extension art courses -- basic drawing, basic watercolor, portraits, and pastels.  I started making my name signs for children (which at one time were sold through four local stores) and I produced my hidden-name flower watercolors.  With the passing months and years I thought of even more things I wanted to draw or paint, and some of those things are still here on my website.

In early 2001, my sweetie looked at my piles of fabric scraps left from years of sewing clothes and suggested "Why don't you try quilting? You could use some of this up, and then there'd be more room for MY stuff."  I'm sure many of you are already ahead of me and laughing.  Yes, I took up quilting, but those piles of scraps were not the right materials.  After numerous fabric shopping trips, I now have an entire walk-in closet dedicated to fabric storage, and the family room has been converted into a quilting and sewing room.  Naturally there's even LESS room now for Sweetie's stuff.
      see my workroom

 
         
  CRAFTS MENU

PERSONALIZED ITEMS

  custom order name signs -- for children, teachers, other adults
Christmas stockings with names, monograms
personalized note cards
-- name or monogram
custom bookmark orders
-- monogrammed, special events, clubs
 
BRIDGE, EUCHRE, CANASTA
  overview of all items
progressive tallies for bridge, euchre, canasta
-- for 2-table to 6-table parties
bridge scorepad holders
-- guide for Chicago, rubber, duplicate
complete bridge sets
-- matching tallies and scorepads
FREE printable bridge score sheet
 
BOOK ITEMS
  Covers for books, from fabric and paper
    covers for paperbacks, from fabric and paper
    quilted covers for composition books and sketch books
    fabric covers for telephone books
Bookmarks, from fabric and paper
    bookmarks from papers
    bookmarks from fabric
    custom bookmark orders
 
FABRIC CRAFTS
  purses, tote bags, holders, satchels
table and kitchen Items -- placemats, coasters, pot holders, runners, toppers
quilts -- for baby, child, couch throw, lap warmer
silk scarves
fabric bowls
photo albums
cloth books
-- for babies, toddlers, and adults
 
PATTERNS -- INTRO -- quilts, coasters, placemats, purses, and more
 
JEWELRY
  fabric jewelry
paper jewelry
 
MAGNETS -- INTRO
  CLEAN-DIRTY -- for your dishwasher
SAFE to dry
-- for your laundry room
  Simplify
WELCOME
patriotic
Easter
Christmas
marbled-paper
angels
 
LOCKED-UNLOCKED
OPEN-CLOSED
NO SMOKING
"I'd rather be..." designs
"World's Greatest..." designs
flower hidden-name designs
 
NOVELTY ITEMS
  pencil holder cans -- "squirrel meat" and four other designs
miniature paper baskets
 
SCRAPBOOKING SUPPLIES -- INTRO
 
NOTE CARDS AND SIGNS
  "just a note" music card set
doorknob sign "Cat IN - OUT"
"I'd rather be..." cards & signs
-- fishing, quilting, dancing, etc.
"World's Greatest..." cards & signs
-- mother, grandma, teacher
WELCOME signs
HAPPY EASTER signs
MERRY CHRISTMAS signs
flower hidden-name note cards
-- rose, orchid, lily, etc.
carousel animal note card sets
marbled flower-stencil card sets
vacation sketches note card set
personalized note cards
-- name or monogram
 
FREE wallpaper
 
If you count both my child's hand-crank Singer (doll clothes around age 6) and a beautiful treadle machine that belonged to one of my grandmothers, I now own SIX sewing machines.  Among quilters, multiple machines isn't unusual.  Oh yes, and there's that miniature sewing machine for my magnificent four-story dollhouse -- that makes seven.

So far, in quilting, I am playing with several widely differing styles.  I enjoy making what many call "art quilts" ~~ wall hangings of non-traditional construction incorporating non-traditional materials.  At the same time I feel satisfaction in traditional quilting whenever the points match, the quilt is straight and flat, and the design and colors sparkle.  I love designing my own patterns, some of which are for sale.  And I'm developing a passion for miniature quilts (almost the same time to make, but easier to display).  In short, I'm experimenting with lots of quilt styles and, to date, have enjoyed everything I've tried.

I've also taken up lots of other crafts -- dyeing fabric, painting silk scarves, and making purses and tote bags to name just a few.  I've even reverted to math, spending many hours developing rotations for card players at multi-table card parties.

In a large research institution, most employees are only small facets of huge projects, few employees receive any recognition (beyond their paychecks) for their work, and a personal accomplishment can be rare, hard to describe to family and friends, and intangible.  (My mother often said, with a sigh, that she had no idea what I did for a living.)  One of the great satisfactions of what I do now, as compared to my former job at RTI, is being able to make something with my hands, then hold it and look at it and think "I made this."  If someone else likes it too -- particularly if they like it enough to pay me for it -- then that's a bonus.

It's now been years since I last got a paycheck.  I am very happy with my life today -- poor, but happy.

 

 

sketches from two recent classes at Meredith College

one of my drawings from a portrait class at Meredith

one of my drawings from a drawing class at Meredith

 
miniature sewing machine for my dollhouse
miniature sewing machine for my dollhouse
 
 
 
education --
BA, math, Meredith College
MS, math, North Carolina State University
"ABD", math, North Carolina State University
MBA, Duke University
 
 

member--
The Fabricators (quilt bee)
Capitol Quilters Guild (Raleigh, NC)
Triangle Art Quilters Guild   about the TAQG
Professional Art Quilters Association of the South
American Quilters Society
 
 

participant--
NCSU Crafts Center Fall Fair
Unitarian Fellowship Autumn Art Fest
Highland United Methodist Holiday Bazaar
W. Millbrook Middle School Holiday Marketplace
Christmas Open Studio Arts Show (Alan Leland)
Wake County Heritage Day (Oak Park)
Cary Academy Home for the Holidays
Sertoma Arts Center Fair
Faith Lutheran School Angel Bazaar
 
 

instructor--
NCSU Crafts Center
 
 

some items available at--
Etc. Crafts, Cary, NC
 
 

website info--
webmaster = Nileen Hunt
site host = American Data Technology, Inc.
                        ( www.localweb.com )
 
 
 


courses and classes since leaving RTI --

courses at Meredith College    -- basic drawing
        -- basic watercolor
        -- pastel drawing
        -- portrait drawing I
        -- portrait drawing II

courses at NCSU Crafts Center
        -- Chinese brush painting, Ellen Ko
        -- fabric dyeing and embellishment, Lyric Kinard
        -- cloisonne enamelling, Lillian Jones
        -- silver jewelry making, Gary McCutchen
        -- lampworked glass bead making, Michael Searle
        -- advanced lampworked beads, Janie Jones
        -- Coptic bound bookmaking, Julie Olsen

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (week-long workshops)
        -- paper marbling, Mimi Schleicher
        -- dyeing cotton fabrics (and some silks), Liz Axford
        -- dyeing silk fabrics, shibori techniques, Joan Morris
        -- silk screening on cotton and silk, Kerr Grabowski

all-day quilting workshops
        -- machine quilting, Caryl Bryer Fallert
        -- fitting and designing a vest, Rachel Clark
        -- coat design, African designs, Rachel Clark
        -- machine applique, Carol Strauss
        -- machine stipple quilting, Sue Nickels
        -- machine applique techniques, Sue Nickels
        -- Perkiomen 9-patch, Bettina Havig
        -- feathered star, Paula Golden
        -- mariner's compass, Kathy Delaney
        -- Celtic applique, Kathy Delaney
        -- painting and foiling fabric, Melody Crust
        -- painting fabric with dyes, Hollis Chatelain
        -- pickle dish block, John Flynn
        -- Arabic lattice, John Flynn
        -- pieced baskets, Sally Collins
        -- free-motion quilting beyond stippling, Patsy Thompson
        -- free-motion quilted feathers, Patsy Thompson

half-day quilt symposium workshops
        -- beaded buttons, Larken Jean Van Horn
 

 
 

The background on this page is one of my original wallpapers.
 

 
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