10 colors of the Hobby Lobby yarn, and I used up nearly 3 skeins for the grape color (which I oversampled in the design), and about 1.5 skeins of each of the other 9 colors. This thing is huge (the yarn is also a bit on the fatter side). Fits the top of a king size bed, and drapes quite a bit around a queen.

I created a color layout plan using Excel (I’m a statistician… geeked out on this), to ensure that I didn’t replicate any particular square. In particular, I tried to balance the frequency of colors in the outside round, and work inside from there. I used 10 colors, giving the “grape” purple color more weight when the number of squares was not divisible by 10 :) Purples, blues, and grays.

Plan to work through the biggest squares first, then move down to the smallest (more flexibility of remaining yardage to make smaller bits…).

I modified the method for each square slightly:

To start, chain 4, join to form a ring, ch-3 (counts as first dc), then proceed. At the beginning of round 2 of the same color, use a chain-3 as the first dc of the next round.

BIG NOTE: I noticed my first square to be a little not-so-flat. To remedy this, I made sure to really pull my dcs up nice and tall when working into the corner chains (the 2 dc, 2 ch, 2 dcs). This helped A LOT.

When finishing off a yarn color (in one of the inside colors), I didn’t join the last and first sts together with a slip st… instead, I first broke the yarn and pulled the yarn all the way through (like the first step of an invisible join in the round), then threaded the yarn end with a needle under the top (both loops) of the first st from the previous round (from front to back). Then I weaved the yarn from bottom to top BEHIND the back of that same stitch (the back-side of the last dc, in the loop just under the top two loops, this seemed to make the join most invisible to me).

When joining the new color in the next round, start in a whole new corner, and start with a “standing dc” stitch (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBp-bO2EQRE). I always started in the corner with the first of the 2 dc (first one being the standing dc stitch), 2-ch, and 2 dc. This made it much easier to keep track where the beginning of each round was, and keeps the fastening-off-of-yarn in the very last round near a corner.

At the end of the very last round, join to the top of the first st from the previous round with a slip stitch (going through both loops of that st), break yarn, then weave the yarn through the sts from right to left along the top until you get to a corner, leaving at least 2 square’s width length of yarn (plus a bit more for weaving) for sewing later.

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The following links were helpful as I was planning…

Consider this for a layout (for next time. I used the one in the pattern for this current project): http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vjSe2BrTxS8/UaBYGPum-4I/AAAAAAA...

And these tips: http://shesewsrainbows.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-babette-b...

Finished all of the 4 color squares early May 2016.
Finished the 3 color squares May 29, 2016…whew!
Finished the 2 color 4-round squares June 19, 2016.
Finished all the 2 round squares June 25, 2016.

Squares complete! Next, I divided them up into 5 piles, one for each panel, distributing the outside colors as evenly as possible.

Connecting using mattress stitch (somewhat modified, see pics). Very smooth and nearly invisible join. After looking this up online, however, not sure that this is the “correct” way. I saw many versions. It’s totally invisible on the wrong side, but doesn’t look bad on the right side. It is what it is, and I like the look :) I went through both loops on the sts to make the join more secure.

This video shows the same technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n712oIndofQ

In general, I have been including all of the dcs + one st per corner as a “side” for joining. But if there are more corner sts on one side as compared to the other, you’ll need to treat some of those 2-sts-in-the-corner as a single st to get things to line up.

Total sts on a side (including 2 corner sts -- one on each side):
10 round: 41 (39 dcs + 2 corner sts)
8 round: 33
6 round: 25
4 round: 17
2 round: 9
Useful info when planning out the joining edges…

First 3 panels stitched together by June 30, 2016… surprisingly addictive! SO FUN seeing this coming together :)

4 panels attached on July 6, 2016… so close! One more panel + edging…

5th panel stitched together July 12, 2016… just need to connect that to the rest + edging!!!!!

Finished on July 15, 2016. Will definitely be making this again.