Soupcon Quilt Along - Step 4

Yesterday Karen gave us instructions for the fourth step for our hexagon quilt along. I consider this to have been a very nice valentine from her. I spent the afternoon cutting and sewing the pieced border. I had no experience with this pattern and was glad to learn how to set those squares on point without going crazy.

19"x 19"

It wasn't until all the borders were sewn on did that pieced border begin to glow. To me it has the shine of faceted jewels.

In this close-up shot you can more clearly see the fabrics. Who would've thought that hand-marbled fabric would be the one that works. Wish I had taken photos of my other considerations, but I was too excited to get started to take the time to do so.

Now I'm excited to add this border pattern to my initial project for this quilt along ... the one that grew beyond the boundary of  Soupcon's first step. I did take the time to photograph the border fabric auditions on this one. I'm still in the process of embroidering around the hexagon motifs and will finish doing that before adding the border pattern.

Audition #1

The red patterned squares pick up the red in the hexagon's centers, though that scale is too large. I liked the colors in the pattern of the fabric around them, but it's really too busy.

 Audition #2

The dark fabric behind those same red squares is flecked with bright colors. It's the one in the background of my single hexagon piece at the beginning of this post.

Audition #3

I'm still liking that red fabric for the squares. This time over the same shaded black fabric that's behind the center star hexagon.

Audition #4

I happened to take notice of how the marbled fabric used for those diamonds in the other piece picked up the purplish hue of the big squares in this one. I do believe this with the shaded black background will be my choice. I think the striped fabric may be the one I use to outline the diamond pattern. Although, there's time for something else to take my fancy before I actually begin cutting.

Take note that the fancy border around the center star motif is appliqued and embroidered. I'm pleased. It's a bit of struggle coming up with designs to border the "round" hexagon shapes. I've just this moment begun to suspect they don't need embellishing. In which case, the embroidery I've done around the top center will need to come out.