Washington DC

We spent Sunday in Washington DC and had several wonderful surprises throughout the day. To begin our day we went to church at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. What an awesome church.

After church we set off to find Fredrick Douglas' house. It was a great surprise to find his home so wonderfully looked after and we had an enlightening and educational tour. He was born into slavery but escaped and went on to become a sought after speaker and was not only a staunch abolitionist but also a strong supporter of women's rights. He was a United States Marshall under Abraham Lincoln. His house was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman stopped by his house whenever she was in Washington. At the gift store I was surprised to find some really great teaching aides including finger puppets of Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglas. Very neat!

Another neat surprise was in Mr. Douglas' house. Almost all of the things in the house were original to when Mr. Douglas lived there. In the upstairs bedroom - the ladies guest room - there was a monkey wrench quilt on the bed. It was an original item. Very cool!! Note the chamber pot under the bed!

The last surprise of the day came on our way to Philadelphia. I was looking in my Quilter's Travel Companion and found a quilt shop that was on our way - well it would have been on our way if I had found it about 3 miles sooner. Kent said we were OK to turn around and go back and so we did. It was AWESOME! The name of the shop was "And Sew it Goes ~ Quilting". It was in Savage, Maryland. The building was a restored textile mill where they used to make cotton sails for ships. I didn't take any of my plans with me because we had been having such crummy luck and then when I got there and found her wonderful selection I had to rely on my memory because we were parked too far to go back and get my book. The shop owner was very helpful and we had a nice chat about the use of quilts on the Underground Railroad. When we got to our motel I told Kent I wanted to take up my fabric so I could look at it. Lots of different things than I have seen at home. Maybe this is the change in my luck!!