Hearts and Diamonds

I saw this free sheet at the local Meijer store.  It's directions to make a beautiful crocheted afghan, with a  hearts and diamonds in the pattern.  I actually rolled passed it quite a few times.  I'm a crochet amateur my grandma showed me a few things when I was about 8 including how to make a pot holder, that's about it. So then I decided to just grab the sheet of instructions one day, because heck, it was free, and I might actually try it sometime.  For a few months it just sat on my desk, then I made my son a tie fleece blanket for Christmas, and I figured "what the heck, I'm gonna make it!".  So I went to the library and got a couple of books on crochet, because this pattern had stitches in it that I had never heard of, and I bought some yarn.   My daughter's favorite color is blue, so I made it blue on blue for her for Christmas.   I started in Sepetember.  I made one panel, and the second panel...and then I got really busy w/ Christmas shopping and kids activites, this and that...everything kept coming up and it seemed like I rarely had time to work on it.   Christmas came and it was not done, just two panels and the border on one.  I told my daughter it was for her and she graciously said it was ok, she would wait.   So I kept working on it.   In March, I got all four panels done, and started comparing them to the original two and there was one that was too long.  I couldn't just pull it out, cause that would leave half a heart.  So I made another panel, which also wasn't the same size...I pulled it all out and re did it, still wasn't right.  I was using the same yarn, the same hook...I still have no idea why it wouldn't work.  SO I just gave up, pulled out enough to make it even w/ the rest, which DID leave half a heart...but my daughter is 7 and has yet to even notice.  It turned out very nice, not sure I would make it again, but I learned a lot of new things about crochet so it was worth it.  She loves it, and that's all that really matters.  Oh yeah, I finished at the end of April... when I started in September, my husband commented, "you won't be done by Christmas...I bet you won't finish til May". There was no way I was gonna let him be right, so I had to finish before May.