grandmother's flower garden quilt

One of my major projects in process is a Grandmother's flower garden quilt being made with a yellow center, first ring of solid fabrics, then a coordinating 30s reproduction, then an outer ring of white. The hexagons will be connected with green (sort of kelly with a slight bluish cast).

I started this in homage to my grandmother who had made one of these that our family had until it was used in a dog bed and destroyed when I was about 13. So the green I selected is an attempt to match the colors in this vague memory of a quilt.

I am pretty new to quilting and have done mostly machine piecing, but started this project because my time at my machine is pretty limited due to travel, and now my mother is living with us, so I can do hand work and watch tv with her. I'm aiming at 46 hexagons (4 rows of 7 and 3 rows of 6, with half hexies on the tops and bottoms to make the edges even). I have about 34 completed including the white rings, have the other colored rings finished and next need to add the white rings to those. I started all this in late July 2009, so the progress isn't bad.

I have a wide variation in the brightness of the solids, but have tried to have a pretty even representation of the basic colors: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

I haven't had a chance to put these on a design wall, but am trying to figure out if I should let this be totally random, or start with the brightest solids in the focal center and then go to the paler hues toward the edges.

I'd love any advice on this.