"...Saving 9"

Challenge 9.5 Stitch in Time. Voting Here

For some reason I kept getting flashes of that old TV game show "Concentration".  They always had little idioms or cliche' phrases like this one, "A stitch in time saves nine.".  Along with the late 70's decor of that show and the Ocean's 11 movies, I found my retro fabrics.  I had a picture in my head that needed very contrasting patterns and colors.  Went down to the local fabric hot spot the Modern Sewist!!!  I present to you "...Saving Nine", 1'6"x 2', central florida

None of this seems to go together.  Can I really pull this off?

Slowly arranging and changing.  The image in my head did not have exact placement or proportion...  Oh but now it does!!!

   

Pulled some colored threads and iron on patches together for the transformation.

Where to start?  What font did I want to go with?  Old Vegas was the source for the font.  Took each letter from a different Vegas casino.  I kind of morphed them all into one.  The iron on patches came in the exact colors I was looking for.  A quick stitch around the edge keeps the iron on "on".

Threads color coordinated to compliment the scene.

The #9...  It's harder to find a 9 then one would guess.  I looked all over the box store art store.  Letters everywhere!!!  Only number stencils.  What then to make it out of?  Oh yeah it's a quilt, so fabric duh.

All the layers are starting to come together.

I'm still learning this process of operation when it comes to which part gets attached first.  Spent way too much time on the arrangement part.  Then again it's a visual medium so I guess that's okay.

Got all the piecing done.  A few tweaks on the exact placement.  

First pattern I made and followed.  Until now I just sketched an idea and then just made it in fabric.  This time I had pieces that had to fit together.  Therefore a little more precision was needed.

 

Went back and forth as to how the 9 will be saved???  I chose with life preserver.

Scary times trimming the fabric to it's final shape.  Did I forget anything?  Did I leave enough room for the binding???

Went with a striped binding.  I felt like it was needed to break up the retro vibe.

...Saving Nine.

Oh Yeah!!!  Some sweet backing material my Mom saw on a fabric rack.  How perfectly fitting.

A Stitch in Time fabric lol...