Soupcon #1 - Border

This afternoon the border that's part of step #4 for my first Soupcon Quilt Along project got sewn on ...

The narrow outer borders are cut from a fine Italian cotton with a tiny print that reminded me of the patterning used for men's ties. So that sent me searching for for the tin full of hexagons constructed from my husband's neckties that I made nearly twenty years ago after he had retired ...

 

Here they are pinned in place. The actual colors of the silk tie hexagons are a bit more subdued than they appear here.

...and a close-up so you can see the patterning of the Italian cotton.

I really like those silk tie hexagons, but I think they're too large. The edges each measure 1 1/4". I think my evenings work will be remaking them so they're 1"... the size of the hexagons that make up shapes in the focal area. Can't wait to get that done!

Post Script: A comment made on the Flickr site by one of my fellow participants has given me pause. She observed how the "viewer can look through." Now I see that center panel floating over a dark smoky background. Do I want to go with that or carry on with filling that negative space with the hexagons made from the silk ties. I've spent the evening making all of them smaller. I like the look, but just maybe they'll work better into the next step Karen gives us at the end of this next week. So this is it for this project until then.

Update May 8, 2019
Since I had set up a Face Book account whatever I'm working on, plus the goings on in my life have been posted there. Looking back through some of these posts I realize that I need to add some updates to projects that have long been finished ... this one with the hexagons for example. I did end up using the hexagons that I had reduced to one inch. Also this piece is hand quilted  with a diamond pattern.

Antique hand-made fabric buttons are centered in the hexagons within the border. This common element helped to linked them together into a unit rather than individual "spot dots." Visually they receded just enough so the snowflakes are the main focus.

The rest of those hexagons created from my husbands neckties ended up on our three same aged  grandson's "BIG Boy" quilts. I can hardly believe they're all twenty years old .. soon to be 21!

The quilt patterns are all a variation of "bargello" made with shirting and light-weight suiting fabrics.

One grandson request the hexagons be on the "back" of his quilt. He liked the clean lines unadorned on the "front."

I do believe their next quilts will be hand-quilted wedding presents. One of which grew out of that "soupcon" project: