Made this for my best Sister-Friend (we might as well be related!) in her favorite colors. This lap-afghan is only 3x4 motifs (not counting fillers), which is a much smaller version than in the pattern.

The only modification I made to the motif was to use extended fpdc’s. This gave just enough additional height to the stitches to keep things from drawing up to tightly and allowed the motifs to flatten out without any blocking.

I did my own thing for the border by filling in with chain stitch mesh followed by a round of sc to get straight sides and rounded corners. I then finished it off with 4 rounds of: reverse dc, ch 1. On the next to the last round I did ch 2 between the reverse dc’s going around the corners to prevent it from “cupping”.

I see a few minor issues with the way I did the ch stitch mesh at the corners, which I will adjust if I do this again, but I’m pleased the overall result.

Update -- Since I had someone inquire about the details of the border I used, I have included my response to them in case it helps anyone else:

The border is similar to the “crab” stitch (reverse sc), except it uses reverse dc instead of the reverse sc. First I did a round of sc to provide a “base” for the border. Next, I did (reverse dc in next st, ch 1, skip 1 st) around. For the remaining 3 rows I changed colors and and did (reverse dc in next ch 1 space, ch 1). By the 3rd or 4th round I adjusted by throwing in a few reverse tr and/or ch 2’s around the corners to prevent “cupping”.

I hope this helps. I use this type of stitch in one fashion or the other on a lot of my projects because of the nice “corded” edge it gives, which really helps the finished item to better retain it’s shape over time.