Changes I made to the pattern:

• I started each motif with a sliding loop rather than a chain 4 loop because I didn’t want a hole in the middle of the circles. Here is a tutorial:

http://crochetagain.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/sliding-loop...

• I changed round 7 to double crochet because I wanted a little more space between the circles.

3/14/14 - All done! But guess what? The baby shower was canceled! I guess it’s nice to know I would have had it in time for the shower. It will get to the family after the baby is born.

The border is one round single crochet, 7 rounds single crochet chain one, and a final round of single crochet, chain 3, single crochet in each chain space.

3/11/14 - The seams are done and I’ve started the border. I was inspired by the border for the Bright As A Button blanket.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bright-as-a-butto...

I want to do 8 rounds of single crochet chain one for the border, alternating between the gray background color and 4 colors from the blanket (the darker purple, the darker pink, the medium pink, and the light yellow). For the final round I will do a round of dark grey single crochet with either small shells or picots. Not sure yet. The baby shower is in 4 days!

3/8/14 - I’ve finished the horizontal seams and now need to do the vertical ones. I’m so happy with how this is turning out! I love these colors together. The baby shower is one week from today. I’m hoping hoping hoping I will finish in time.

3/3/14 - All the motifs are done! I sewed a couple of squares together using the reverse mattress stitch.

http://www.woolnhook.com/2011/08/invisible-seam-reverse-m...

I’ve tried whipstitching squares together for another project and found it very tedious. So far I really like the mattress stitch join. Hoping that I can get these squares together without too much headache!

2/23/14 - I finished all the circles a few days ago and am now working on the last 2 rounds of gray. I’m about halfway through and am weaving in the ends as each square is finished so that when they’re done, they’re done!

2/15/14 - I’ve done 35 circles and have started weaving in some ends. I’ve added the gray background to 2 circles, and they are measuring 5.5 inches each. I cut out 2 colors, so I am using 7: 3 shades of pink, and 2 shades each of yellow and purple. The blanket will be 7 circles in each color, 7x7 motifs.

2/8/14 - I’m up to 20 circles. The blanket will probably be 8x8 circles, with 7 of each color except one, which will have 8 colors. I’ve found out that the baby shower will be later this month or early March. Not sure if I can finish by then! But I will do my best.

2/3/14 - I’ve made 9 circles so far. Each circle takes about 7 grams of yarn, which I will keep in mind in case I want to make another, bigger version. I’m planning to make 81 circles, 9 in each color. It might come out a little big for a baby blanket. We’ll see.

2/1/14 - This blanket is for a friend who is expecting a girl in April. I should have started sooner but oh well. I don’t have all the colors yet that I want to use. I want to use 9 colors - 3 shades each of yellow, pink, and purple - with a deep gray background.