Gerri Wright was born and raised in New York City, yet now makes Hampton, Virginia her home. She became interested in quilting as her mother told stories about her childhood. Her mother grew up in rural in South Carolina, in a small home without heat. She told her daughter how she had to run to get under the covers at night, after placing heated bricks under homemade quilts. The quilts were so heavy that one child would hold the quilt up while the other placed the heated bricks underneath. These stories touched her so much that she completed her first quilt at age eleven, reproducing the techniques of her mother’s childhood. This quilt is still a family favorite of her children. In the following years she visited quilt shows and attended demonstrations. It was not until 1998 that she took her first “formal” quilting class, and has been hooked since. Her loves include the history of African and African-American quilts and passing this knowledge on to our next generation. She has been a member of 54-40 since 2003 and feels that she has finally found her place in quilting. It is at the hands of her Sisters that she feels the connections to her ancestors and the Master craftsman from home.