9/14/2014:
I have never been so happy to have finished a project. This felt like it took forever to complete. All of the crocheted diamonds that you have to sew into motifs then sew motifs together. I’ve done a lot of crochet, including motifs, but this was just hard to get through. It is gorgeous, though, and I know my son will love it.
I must give a shout out to Hobby Lobby’s yarn which ended up being the one my son chose when I began this project. I really do like their acrylic yarn. It is soft and easy to work with and care for. The colors are exactly what I was looking for and I’m pleased with how well the yarn held up through a few unravelings and tossings about whenever I ended up frustrated.
Overall, I know I will not make this afghan again. I don’t mind motifs but I’d rather work them into the afghan as I go along. However, this was not a hard project to do, just time consuming.

9/15/2014:
I wanted to add a couple of notes now that I’m done with this throw. First, it is just as lovely as it was when I sewed the last stitch.

Second, in the pics you may notice a color difference in the green and cream. When I began this throw, I had all the yarn I needed. I originally began this a few years ago. Then we moved from an apartment to a house and I went through my yarn stash and gave what I didn’t want or need anymore to crochet/knitting friends. Apparently, one of the green and cream skeins ran away from home during this time because when I took this back out in January to work on again, those two were missing. I had to go back to the store and pick out two skeins. I thought the cream was close enough but when I got home it wasn’t. The green was not even close either. I did manage to only have to make two green diamonds from the new green (and those are on the end of the blanket) and then the trim. The cream is mixed throughout and doesn’t look bad at all because of it. It gives a patchwork look to it that I like. And my son isn’t going to care about the mismatch at all.
So, when I get the good pics up you will see I detoured a bit from the trim instructions. I used the burgundy for the first round of the trim and green for the second final round. I thought this would break up the green and give the afghan an added interest.