A Light Has DimmedThe Passing of Hilary Morrow Fletcher

It is with great sadness that we must report that Hilary Fletcher, Quilt National Project Director passed away early this morning.

Karey Bresenhan, Director, International Quilt Festival, presented the sad news to the Quiltart Mailing List this afternoon. She has kindly granted us permission to re-post her message here.

From: Karey Bresenhan
Date: Aug 11, 2006 1:16 PM
Subject: [Quiltart] A sad loss for the art quilt world
To: QuiltArt

It is with great sadness that I must let you know that Hilary Fletcher died this morning about 2 a.m. Hilary has been the heart and soul of Quilt National as long as I can remember. She had decided earlier this year to retire next year after the 2007 Quilt National, but life, unfortunately, had other plans for her.

The funeral will be held in Athens, Ohio on Sunday at 1 pm;
however, Hilary herself had asked that no flowers be sent.
Instead, an endowment fund for Quilt National has been started
in her name, and it was her wish that any remembrances
be sent to that fund.

The cause of death was a recurrence of a melanoma she had
originally eight years ago; it came back as an extremely
fast-growing tumor several months ago, and despite every
effort, she lost her battle. Hilary was a truly wonderful person,
completely dedicated to art quilts, the moving force behind
Quilt National, an active collector of art quilts herself,
a board member of SAQA (where I got to know her well),
a wife, mother, and grandmother. What a huge loss for her family
and for all of us who love the world of art quilts.

Once I know how to make a donation to the endowment fund
in her memory, I will post this to the list.


Karey Bresenhan

We have since learned that donations can be made by visiting
Quiltart. Please click Help Honor QN's Hilary Morrow Fletcher
to download the form.

Respectfully,

AQatS Committee