No Rest for the Weary

Huuuuge sigh of relief, my friends. It always feels monumental when a Bee Sewcial quilt gets finished, and maybe even more so with this result from my Courthouse Steps prompt. At 64" square, I know it's busy, busy, with little space for the eye to rest, but I love it. Meet No Rest for the Weary.

I struggled a while deciding on a layout, knowing that, if possible, I'd like to add a bit more black and white to play off the centers of my bee mates' blocks. And once I came up with an idea, I felt pretty good about it, finicky as it was to create and work in amongst the blocks.

The center of the quilt back was made entirely from scrap, but I'd pretty much run out by that time, so I added stash to bring it to size, while trying to create a big ole courthouse steps design.

For quilting, I was inspired by a design I got from the AQS blog a couple of years ago: 25 Nine Patch Quilting Designs. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be there any more. But here's a diagram of it:

I've been calling it a zig zag grid, but honestly, before I'd even stitched all the lines, if felt like enough. I began with a 3" grid, then stitched at a 45-degree angle, followed by a 60-degree angle. It felt like a LOT of stitching! With so many colors in the quilt, I wasn't sold on any particular thread color, but finally settled on 

Aurifil 50wt 5006 [Light Turquoise], which worked well enough.

To finish, I decided on a faced edge. using the tutorial by Audrey Esaray @cottonandbourbon, and I'm glad I did. This is my 12th(!) quilt with Bee Sewcial, and I'm more than happy to add No Rest for the Weary to the collection.

Many thanks to my Bee Sewcial bee mates for their wonderful responses to my prompt. Leanne Chahley @shecanquilt, Stephanie Ruyle @spontaneousthreads, Felicity Ronaghan @felicityquilts, Karen Foster 

@capitolaquilter, M-R Charbonneau @quiltmatters, Tia Curtis @tiacurtisquilts, Emilie Trahan @mili.tra, and Kitty Wilkin @nightquilter all contributed blocks.