First, Val sent me some photos of the furnishings that she had so far (I fell in love instantly with those rich, warm browns!):

She asked especially that a little bit of the brights in this special collage with sentimental meaning and handmade by a friend be in the throw (yay, browns AND color, what could be better?!):

She also asked for shorter than usual fringe (9 inches instead of my standard 12 inches); no problem, Val (I offered to make the body of the blanket a bit longer to compensate)!
I sent a photo of another custom throw I'd made with shorter than usual fringe to give her an idea of proportions:
And suggested that a blanket in a medium taupe brown like this one I had made for Beth in Germany might be a good base color and Val agreed:
Once Val had checked out at CricketsHome, I got right to work assembling the yarns for the fringe (*squeeeee* I love this part of the design process)! I picked out lots of texture, sparkles, ribbons and pom poms to make the fringe *POP*; I was careful to only make 10% of the yarns colorful like the collage and the remaining 90% in those lovely browns. This is what I came up with:
And here's the final result, Mission Accomplished (I consider it a success because Val wrote when she saw the photos, "I love, love, love it! It is perfect! I can't wait to see it at the vacation house! Yeah!
Thanks so much!")!
Thanks for stopping by and coming along with me on another fun adventure! :)
Celeste (Crickets)