Goldilocks & the Colleges

Any of you who have followed my blog for awhile know I have only one child, my daughter, Heather. She is a senior and graduating from high school next month at the top of her class. We took an impromptu vacation over our Spring Break a few weeks ago for her to pick out where to go for college. We visited several colleges back east and I nicknamed it the Goldilocks Tour! We had a great time.

Each school was a better and better fit, but she decided on Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. The campus is gorgeous! It is the quintessential New England college town. The shocking thing was that it was the most rural college we looked at. She is not a big fan of the rural area we live in and this is even smaller. The town has 3,000 and the school is about 3,000--the nearest Target is 35 minutes away. Sounds nice and safe to me!

 It is a highly selective liberal arts university and they offered her a wonderful financial aid package that is grant based--so she will be able to graduate without any student loan debt and it is cheaper than sending her to college in the state of Colorado. This is the willow path on campus and legend has it that if you have your first kiss on the willow path, you will eventually marry who you kissed. I told her to avoid the willow path!

The surrounding area is full of gorgeous farms and livestock. They also awarded her an Alumni Memorial Scholarship which means she gets $6,000 during her four years to spend on internships or travel. As an AMS, she gets to move into the dorms earlier and do some bonding activities with the other thirty AMS students. We did not understand all of these perks and what an honor this program is until we arrived for our tour and we were met by the dean. She had the opportunity to attend some classes, meet some students, check out the dining hall, etc. It was quite the red carpet treatment.

 

Although Colgate University is one of the most expensive universities in the country, they offer need based financial aid which makes it more affordable than most state schools. Many private colleges offer more financial aid than public institutions and are not out of reach for your children, be sure to take the time to research some of them--most of their websites offer financial aid calculators to help give accurate estimates of your costs.

If you want to see some more amazing pictures of Colgate click on this link

http://www.businessinsider.com/colgate-university-has-the-most-beautiful-college-campus-2014-8#

 Now on to quilting! I quilted the Sweetheart Baby Quilt this morning--nothing like last minute, the baby shower is Tuesday afternoon.

 I will spend the evening hand binding it for Slow Sunday Stitching. Check out other handwork here:

http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2016/04/slow-sunday-stitching-creativ-festival.html

I hope to wash it tomorrow and show you the finished product soon.

Have a great week!

Two Birds with One Stone

 I got back from our college trip a week ago and went straight back to work. I got an email about a baby shower for one of my coworkers in TWO WEEKS! I have been asking her about her nursery theme and colors since she found out she was having a girl in January, but she had not made up her mind until recently. She is going traditional with light pink, white, hearts, and bows. I needed a simple, quick design--I found this Sweethearts Quilt free pattern from Cloud 9 Fabrics. I decided to make mine smaller, so it is 48 x 48 before quilting and washing. I made 33 hearts and was able to have no fabrics repeated. Sorry about the terrible pictures, but we got over an inch of rain in the last couple of days and it was too soggy to get any pictures outside.

I hope to quilt it on my Pfaff this week and bind it next weekend--just in time for the baby shower. There are left over half square triangles and I think I will sew them together and make a pouch out of them. I was asked to donate something for a silent auction and a pouch with some lotion and other goodies will be perfect--that deadline is a couple of weeks too! Nothing like killing two birds with one stone.

Have a good week!

Spring Break 2016

 Our Spring Break officially started at 3:30pm on Friday, 4/1! I have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks helping my daughter with her final yearbook deadline--she is the editor this year. Unfortunately, all of the work had to be done at school connected to the server which meant she spent hours and hours at school--15+ hours a day. I supervised when their adviser could not. Needless to say, there has not been much sewing going on in my world! I did manage to get a few Ugly Xmas Sweater blocks done. 

 This one looks more like an Easter sweater to me because of the colors--I'm not sure if it will make the final cut into my quilt...

I really like this one with Xmas tree! I had planned on working some more Xmas sweaters, Bloom Blocks, and treating myself to a new project to celebrate our Spring Break. However, my hubby and I decided that our daughter needs to go back east to visit her potential colleges and to make a decision--after all it is four years of her life, her future, and a big investment. I thought we would have to miss school and go in a couple of weeks, but I was able to book flights for this week at a great price and the weather looks ok. Quilting will just have to wait!

 One of the schools we will look at is Colgate University--it is often mentioned as one of the most beautiful colleges in the country. The campus includes a lake and golf course and it is highly selective. The day we are scheduled to be there rain is expected, but I can't wait to see it anyway.

This is Lehigh University and it is in Bethlehem, PA. It looks like Hogwarts from Harry Potter! It is a little bigger than Colgate and has more engineering degrees available. It is only one hour from Philadelphia which would make travel easier.

About 1.5 hours away is Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. I can't believe she may end up in the center of Amish quilting country! I would love to explore some quilt shops on this trip, but that is very unlikely--we have lots of places to go and important decisions to be made.

I loaded up a couple of books onto my Kindle for the plane ride and in the evenings. I was not planning on bringing any handwork because we are just bringing carry ons, but I just found this little sheep I have all traced from who knows when.

I grabbed a six inch hoop and picked out a few colors of perle cotton. I can fit this pouch in my purse, so it will make the trip too! I might even have to get started on it tonight after I pack for Slow Sunday Stitching. Check out inspirational handwork here

http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2016/04/slow-sunday-stitching.html

Have a great week!