Orca Bay Eve

Happy New Year's Eve!  And, apparently it's also the Eve of Orca Bay.  Step7 of Orca Bay came out yesterday.  And the final step is coming out TOMORROW! just in time for New Year's.  So, I thought I should get a bit of work done today, to ensure that I'm not totally behind when the assembly instructions arrive in the morning.

This is what I did today.  First a few wing triangles from step 5 (finally).  I only did about 10 of these, but I have lots more pieces cut and they have been going together pretty quickly.  However, I am still working on the 1/2 square triangles that form the basis of these (54 more to go).  I had to buy some more blacks to finish these pieces, but I'm back in motion now.

From there, I attached the wings to 2 of my purple string triangles.  Just two - but it's a start and I can officially say I started on step 7 now :)


I can't wait to see the final step tomorrow - although I suspect it will be a couple of months before I actually finish all the remaining pieces for this quilt. But I'm not complaining ('cause Bonnie says we can't :)

Orca Bay progress - Dec 26

Happy Boxing Day!  Today is a day for staying home, in my opinion.  I try to avoid malls on boxing day, so I'm planning a quiet day at home.  That does not, however, mean I'm going to get much sewing done.  I snuck off for a few minutes this morning to do a couple of blocks from step 6 of Orca Bay.

So this is what's on my design wall (floor) today.  I'm not likely to get much more done, but at least I have one of each for this step, before step #7 comes out.  I still need to finish step 3, and start step 5 - and I suspect step 5 is going to feed into the clue this Friday, so I may have to find a few more minutes to disappear.

Check out more Orca Bay progress on Bonnie's blog today.  And hop over to Patchwork Times for more design walls.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone!  It's still early here.  We have a lovely light snow falling, so it is officially a white Christmas, despite expectations to the contrary.  Yes, those are actual snowflakes in the picture - the flash did a really neat job of lighting them.

One of my sons has been wearing a Santa hat around the house for the past week. They may be growing up, but they still get excited about Christmas. Of course it's now 8:00 and neither teenager is up yet.  What a change from years past, when they'd have me out of bed at 6am for stockings.  I wonder if I can do some quilting before they get up :)

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Day!

Design Wall Monday - Dec 19

There isn't much on my design wall this week. In fact, the wall is empty.  On my ironing board, I have a few more blocks for step 3 of Orca Bay.  This makes 140 done, 210 left to go.  Step 5 builds on step 3, so I guess this should have been the one I finished earlier. I'll keep plugging away, and hopefully a bit later this week I'll get some of step 5 done, before Friday's clue.  Bonnie says we get to start assembling units on Friday, and I can't wait!

Check out Judy's blog to see what others have on their design walls.  And the Monday linkup for Orca Bay has lots more progress there.

Thinking ahead

Grant's quilt

Colin's quilt

Watercolour

Indigo

Pillow Cases

I've been thinking ahead to 2012 recently.  Judy is going to run another UFO challenge, so I'm rounding up my projects to see what I have to add to the list this year. The 2011 challenge was great, and I finished 10 projects out of the 12 on my list - and I didn't join the challenge until June.   So in 2012 I should be able to make excellent progress.  I love to play along - but next year I think my biggest challenge might be that I did such a good job this year, that I don't have very many UFOs hanging around.  That's a good thing, I know.  But I'm a little sad that I might be left out of the fun.

Here is what I have so far on my list to finish next year:

1. Grant's quilt
2. Colin's quilt
3. Watercolour star
4. Indigo star
5. pink and green baby quilt
6. pillow cases for ConKerr cancer (one of the 2 projects from 2011 that didn't get finished)
7. a stack and whack quilt that is cut out

That's only 7, so I need 5 more projects.  I have a number of small quilts waiting for binding, so they go on the list.  I have a "quilt as you go" project that I'm not enjoying, but I'd like to finish and get out of my house. And a few orphan blocks that could possibly be turned into medallion quilts.  But I think it's going to be a stretch to find 12 items for the UFO challenge.  I suppose that's good news, but I don't want to be left out of the fun.


In addition to the UFOs, and the Colour Palette Challenge, I'm thinking about challenging myself to make one baby quilt every month, for donation.  I tried that a couple of years ago, and petered out after about 4 months.  But maybe if I make it part of my UFO challenge (in that I don't want these to turn into UFOs :) ), then I'll be able to keep it up all year.  I really would like to see the end of some of my novelty fabrics this year.

Design Wall Monday - Dec 12

My design wall is pretty empty today,  I cleaned yesterday in preparation for Christmas visitors, and removing all the loose blocks from the wall was one of the steps.  Eariler yesterday it looked like this

Orca Bay is moving along.  I didn't get as much done as I had hoped this weekend.  22 more blocks still needed for step 1, and hundreds for steps 3 and 4.  But I have done a little of each step as it came out - these are 10 of the 22 blocks I have now finished for Step 4.

Rather than sewing yesterday, I cleaned.  The room is almost at a point where I can make the bed, which seems to be a requirement for having a visitor for the next 5 weeks :)  So I'll finish the cleaning tonight, but hopefully keep a little corner for some sewing - I do want to keep up with the new Orca Bay steps as they come out - at least one or two blocks each week.

Check out Judy's blog to see more Design Walls.  And hop over to Bonnie's for more Orca Bay progress this week.

Stash report - Dec 11

I haven't been up to much this week, but I did get a bit of work done on the Orca Bay mystery.  So I'm going to report my yardage for steps 2 through 4 today.

.75 yards - black and white half-square triangles for Orca Bay
.75 yards - orange string blocks for Orca Bay
1.5 yards - purple string blocks for Orca Bay

That's a total of 3 yards out for Orca Bay this week.  Nothing came in, so I am officially into the black again!  And over 100 yards used for the year.   This is probably where I will end up, since I have to turn my sewing room into the guest room tomorrow, for the next few weeks. I will keep Orca Bay handy, and hopefully do at least a couple of blocks for each step, just to keep current.  But other than that, there won't be much sewing going on until January.

Stash Totals for this year:
Overall, 104.5 yards in, 106.0 yards out
Net for the year:  1.5 yards out

Check out Judy's blog for more stash reports.

Purple Strings!

Step 4 of Orca Bay came out yesterday.  This time, Bonnie is letting us play with our primary colour.  In my case, that means purple.  And course this is a Bonnie mystery, so that means more string blocks!  128 triangles, to be exact.

This pile of purple is now strings.  Soon (I hope) to become blocks.  I looked at Bonnie's directions, and all the cutting and trimming, and thought about alternatives.  Instead of 5-1/8" squares, which then get cut on the diagonal, why not a long 3-1/2" strip of strings, cut into triangles?  I don't know if that will save me any time, but it means I can simply cut all my bits to the same length to start.  I suspect there may be a reason my plan isn't ideal, but I'm going to forge ahead anyway :) 

Perhaps in the end I'll have a number of shorter pieces, and I'll switch to making a few squares to use them up. And I did notice as I hung my blocks that a lot of them have teeny tiny pieces in the corners.  Hopefully that won't cause me a lot of grief later.

In any event, here are my first 10 purple string triangles.  Only 118 more to go :)

Design Wall Monday - Dec 5

My design wall this week is an Orca Bay wall.  Step 2 and 3 are on the wall - parts of them, anyway.  I have the final 31 orange string blocks from step 2. And the first 12 (of 350) 2" half-square triangles.

In addition, the Blogger's BOM is still up on my wall.  And the latest Monday Mystery from Sherri.

I didn't make as much progress on Orca Bay as I had hoped over the weekend.  I had great plans, but this cold has knocked me flat, and I only managed about 2 hours of sewing in total all weekend.  That was enough to convert this pile of strings into 41 blocks to finish step 2.  And I pushed myself through a few half-square triangles, just so I would have some progress on step 3 to show today. 

So I guess it's back to black and white land for me this week.  Need to finish 40 more blocks for step 1, and 338 for step 3. Hopefully before step 4 comes out on Friday.

Check out Bonnie's blog for more links to Orca Bay progress.
And don't forget to have a look at the other design walls over at Judy's blog.

Stash Report - Dec 4

I've been working hard this week.  Finished 2 quilts, and made some progress on the Orca Bay mystery.  Unfortunately, none of that has resulted in anything I can count towards my stash report.  I plan to sew the rest of the orange string blocks today (only 41 to go), so I should have some usage to report for next week.

For now, my numbers are the same as last week
Stash Totals for this year:
Overall, 104.5 yards in, 103.0 yards out
Net for the year:  1.5 yards in

Check out Judy's blog for more stash reports

Another Finish

One more finish for this month. My monochromatic challenge is done for November.  This month, Judy challenged us to create something with black and white, and one other colour.  I picked red, and created a quilt that's been stewing in my mind for a few months.  Not named yet, and it still needs a hanging sleeve, but the quilt is done in time for this month's challenge.

It's loosely inspired by M. C. Escher's Metamorphosis (below). 

I enjoyed the process of creating this quilt, but I have pretty much had my fill of hexagons and Y-seams for quite some time.

Proof!

Before tomorrow's step is posted, I had to show that I did in fact manage to start on Step 2 of the Orca Bay mystery.  3 little 3.5" string blocks are done.  I might get a few more tonight, but I won't be anywhere near Bonnie's 72 blocks.  Plus my black and white QSTs - still only 180 of those (out of 224) done.  So I need to get them finished up too.

I think this weekend will be a Bonnie Mystery weekend.  That might get me caught up, depending how challenging she makes step 3 tomorrow :)

November UFO

It's DONE!  This poor little feathered star has been in my sewing room since 2006, I think.  It was a summer challenge at quilt guild - create a star (any star) using 2 provided fabrics and any others you wanted.  For some odd reason, I wanted to make a feathered star - it seemed like a fun challenge  Silly me, being new to the whole quilting scene still, did not realize that feathered stars are generally made quite large.  The challenge was a 12" block.  So when I couldn't dig up a pattern on-line for a 12" feathered star, I drafted my own.

Those feathers are really tiny! This block was made as a practice block. I thought it best to try out the pattern, before cutting into the challenge fabrics.  So I pulled some fabric from my (small at the time) collection, and got to work.  Once it was done, I had the courage to make the real block, and this poor little fella was stuffed onto the shelves, and long ignored.  Thanks to Judy's UFO challenge, it is now a completed quiltie, ready for donation to the local children's hospital.

The quilting is a combination of feathers, meander, and straight line quilting (in the border).  I'm getting braver with my quilting these days.

Cari is showing off the backing fabric.  I picked up a lovely bright yellow print on my last stash building trip, and it seemed just right for this colourful star.

This is the actual challenge block I made, way back then.  It won the challenge and then became the center of the quilt made from all of the challenge blocks.

November BOM

November's block of the month came out on Friday. I was away for the weekend, so I didn't get a chance to work on it until yesterday.  Fortunately, these blocks are pretty quick assembly, and I have my 3rd BOM done and up on my wall.

I wasn't sure about this block at first, but seeing it up with the others, I think this quilt is coming together nicely.

Check out more blocks over at Canton Village Quilt Works.

Design Wall Monday - Nov 28

I don't have anything new on my design wall.  Still the same three projects on the go.

The black and white - I finished it Thursday except the binding.  I'll get that done over the next couple of days.

The Monday Mystery - all caught up, and waiting to see what's next.  I think I know where it's going, and I'm already planning some extra blocks so I can turn this into a quiltie for donation.

Orca Bay - finished 180 blocks.  44 to go, and I still haven't looked up this week's clue.  It came out on Friday, but I was away all weekend, and haven't gone blog hopping over there yet.  That'll happen this week for sure, but I really want to finish both my November projects first.

And as for why I wasn't quilting this weekend - I spent the weekend at a dance competition.  I started taking ballroom dance lessons three years ago.  I had been to a social dance, and every partner I danced with accused me of leading.  One went so far as to say "Ok, you lead, I'll follow".  I was quite embarrassed, and decided it was time to take some lessons.  I told them that I had a simple desire - to learn how to follow. A few lessons in, and I was completely hooked.  I'm well past the point where people accuse me of leading :) but I discovered that I love dancing, and I've continued lessons ever since.  This year I drummed up the courage to attend the annual competition in Niagara Falls.  It was a fabulous weekend that involved a lot of dancing and very little sleeping :)

This is a picture of me and my instructor, from the practice party at the studio last week.  I'm waiting to see what pictures came back from the competition.

Stash Report - Nov 27

1 3/4 yards - 224 QST for Bonnie's Mystery, step 1
1 yard - backing & binding for black & white quilt
1 1/2 yards - Monday Mystery
Total: 4 1/4 yards out

Hey, that looks great!  I'm back in the black, since all I needed was one yard.  However, on Wednesday I went shopping.  4 3/4 yards in (oops).  I was having a bad day, so I dropped by the quilt shop.  Big mistake.  So much for the black.   I'm an additional 1/2 yard in the red instead.

Stash Totals for this year:
Overall, 104.5 yards in, 103.0 yards out
Net for the year:  1.5 yards in

The good news is that I broke the 100 yards used mark for the year.  And I'm still confident I can pull the net used back into the black.  Bonnie's mystery should help with that.  If I can just stay out of the quilt shop...

Almost Done!

I finished quilting the black and white quilt Thursday night.  I chose an overall meander for the quilting, because I thought all the angles in the quilt blocks needed curves to soften it a bit.  You can't really see the quilting in this picture - hopefully I can get some better pics once the binding is on. 

In the red patches, I did some detailed quilting with red thread, to add interest and highlight those blocks.

Binding will have to wait until Monday, when I'm back from my trip. I was planning black binding, but looking at the quilt I'm having second thoughts.  So, what do you think - black, or one (or several) of the black & white prints, for a scrappy binding?

A Quilter's Journey - Irish Chain

I liked the Irish Chain pattern and as I grew in my quilting, I decided to make my son a quilt using it.  Never one to take the easy road, I drafted my own pattern, rather than pull one from a book.  I carefully layed out and drafted the size so that I could “complete” the chain on each edge, to give a floating chain effect.  Looking at it now, as a more experienced quilter, I would have shifted the design so that a row of 3  was on top, rather than the 2 I ended up with.  The corners look a bit bare to me now.

At the time, I was still new to this.  I laid out my design (by hand - no EQ for me at the time.  I'd never even heard of it). The quilt went together quickly with strip piecing, and was assembled in no time.   

Around the same time, Richmond Quilt Guild had a “how to” seminar on seminole piecing.  I decided that would make the perfect border for this quilt. It was a challenge to size correctly with cleanly mitred corners, but I stuck it out, determined to make this work..  

Just before I attached the border, I decided to try the quilt on the bed.  Despite all my careful measurements,  it was 1 row too long.  So I carefully removed the extra row and resized the seminole border to fit the new length.  The final end result was a perfect fit for a twin bed, and my son loved it.  The “extra row” finally found a use as the hanging sleeve for “Kaleidoscope Stars” in October 2006.

This quilt was machine quilted.  A simple cross-hatch follows the lines of the Irish chain.   Five-pointed stars are quilted in the empty spaces, reflecting the stars found on one of the brown fabrics.

This was my first attempt at many different quilting techniques, and was a great learning experience in addition to a lovely gift for my son.  I worked on this from Nov 2004 to Nov 2005.

Black and white and red all over

Happy Thanksgiving, to all those celebrating today!  On days like today, the advantages of working for a Canadian office of an American company become clear.  It's not a holiday for us here, but with the entire US on holiday for 2 days (or more) this week, it's like a vacation ;)  This year, I'm taking advantage of the low activity and taking 2 vacation days myself this week.

I have put the first day of vacation to good use.  The top of my black and white and red quilt is now complete! (It really is a rectangle - just a bad photo below)

I think I can now honestly say that I am done with hexagons.  Way too many little tiny Y-seams in this quilt, so I am quite happy to see the end of them.  Next step - find the backing fabric I bought on my earlier trip to the quilt store, and start the quilting.  I hope I can get that started today, but time will tell.  Tomorrow morning, I leave for a 3 day trip and I'm not quite finished packing yet.  I need to finish that first, then head out for a couple of hours this afternoon   Time permitting, I'll start the quilting tonight.

More Progress

I got all caught up on one of my mysteries this week.  The Monday Mystery  is now up to date, and waiting for (I think) one more clue to finish up.

On Orca Bay, I'm now done 140 quarter square triangles.  82 to go - should be finished those by Friday.  I won't be able to look at part 2 until Monday, unfortunately.  I don't know if I'll be able to handle the suspense :)

My goals for this week - finish my two November projects. That means finish putting together (and hopefully quilt, but that's probably a stretch) the black and white quilt for November's monochromatic challenge.  And quilt the feathered star, to complete my November UFO.

I've also added one more project to the list, but fortunately it doesn't start until February.  I signed up today for the Dancing with the Stars BOM, with my local quilt store.  Lots of places seem to be doing this by mail too, but this way I save the shipping and have the option of hands-on classes each month.  You can see the quilt here (my local store) or here (sew-sisters, mail-order option).  I was in the local quilt shop today and saw the quilt on the wall - it is gorgeous!  And given that I'm off to my first ballroom dance competition this weekend, where I will do "the Viennese Waltz, the Foxtrot, and even the Cha Cha", I couldn't resist.  (That quote is from the quilt description - blocks are named for the dances.)

Design Wall Monday - Nov 21

My design wall has changed  bit since last week, but not too noticeably.  I put together some more of the black/white/red quilt.  The biggest qustion here is whether I will be able to finish this by the end of the month.  I have plans next weekend, so if it's going to happen, I'll need to get busy this week.

Of course, competing for my time are 2 mysteries.  #1 - Bonnie's Orca Bay mystery.  I thought this would be a nice break from the black and white.  On the lower left of my design wall you can see a few of the blocks from step 1.  224 black and white quarter-square triangles.  Sigh - more black and white.  There are such pretty colours in this quilt - I hope we get to play with them in step 2 on Friday. 

I am almost half-way there on step one - 100 done, 124 to go.  All the fabric is cut, just waiting for me to have the patience to sit down and do it.

Mystery #2 is the Monday Mystery from Little Bits of This and That.  I've pondered this for 3 weeks now, but finally took the plunge and cut 20 5" charms tonight.  Of course, the first step is quarter square triangles.  At least it's not black and white, but can't someone give me a break?  :)

Check out Judy's blog for more design walls today.  And don't forget to pop over to Bonnie's blog for more info on Orca Bay.

Stash Report - Nov 20

I had an up and down week this time around.  Didn't feel like quilting most of the week, but I managed to kick the funk by Friday and got a bit done in the last couple of days.  More progress made on my black and white quilt, but that fabric is already counted.  I did bind one quilt, and pulled the backing for another, so a little bit of fabric made its way out.  I also started a new quilt - the Orca Bay mystery.  But I haven't done enough yet to count any fabric.

So for this week, here's what went out:
1/2 yard - binding for baby quilt
3/4 yard - backing for feathered star

 Nothing came in, so I'm still moving in the right direction.

Stash Totals for this year:
Overall, 99.75 yards in, 98.75 yards out
Net for the year:  1.0 yards in


Getting close to breaking even!  I should be there next week, if I keep working on the new Quiltville mystery.  Check out Judy's blog to see who else is near their stash goal for the year.

A New Project

I think I'm going to take the plunge into Orca Bay! This is Bonnie's new mystery. Check it out over on her blog - just follow Shamu here :)

I wasn't going to play along - I have company coming for Christmas, and it looks like this mystery will run right through her visit. And I don't "do" strings (Bonnie loves strings, I understand). And my scrap bins are pretty lame right now, especially in the red zone (Bonnie is using blue and red for her quilt).

But, today I was finishing up the quilting on another one of my recent projects, and pondering my next move. And I thought - Why Not?  The mystery started last Friday and I've been drawn back to the page several times over the past 2 days.  So I did a little bit of digging.  Bonnie says the quilt was inspired by a sunset over Orca Bay - and to me sunsets are orange & purple.  Two colours which I do have a reasonable amount of in my scrap bins.  Blacks & neutrals are a bit more difficult, but Bonnie's pretty loose with the definition of neutral so I should be able to scrounge enough.  And for black - I think I'll pass on the scrap idea and use a couple yards of solid black I have on hand and would love to see gone from my stash closet.  Hopefully that won't throw the whole quilt out of whack, if the rest is scrappy and the black is just black.

So here we have it.  Black,  neutral, orange and purple.  I think I'll use purple as the primary, which may mean I need to find some more.  Bonnie says 3 yards, and I doubt there's 3 yards of anything in that bin.  So maybe I'll go back through my scraps and wander into the blue range with the purples.

First step - 224 2" quarter square triangles in black and neutral.  Oh boy.  I guess I need to get started :)

A Quilter's Journey - Patches

A good friend of mine had given me quilts for each of my children when they were born.  When her 3rd was born, I wanted to return the favour. I found a cute bear quilt on-line, but unfortunately there was no pattern included.  It didn't look too difficult, so I took the photo and drafted a pattern for myself with a few adjustments.

Each of the strips in the rail blocks is 1"x3" finished, and the bear and background were built from 6" finished blocks.  This was the first quilt I made with fabric entirely purchased specifically for the project. It was started in April 2004, and finished in Nov 2004. 

I think it marks the turning point in my quilting career - from "do I like this?" to "addicted quilter".

Design Wall Monday - Nov 14

This is what's on my design wall today.  Still my black and white quilt, but about 1/3 of it has been sewn together.  When I started putting this quilt on the wall, I thought the baby blocks were going to be about the same size as my earlier "Tumbling Down" quilt.  I was amazed how much smaller the pieces became after I sewed them together.  I suppose I should have known, but I never stopped to measure each block.

So, this quilt is going to have much smaller bits than I originally planned. But that's OK - assuming I can get through the assembly without going crazy with all the itty bitty seams.

Other achievements this week - I finished the mystery quilt that I was working on earlier.  This came from the first Mystery Monday at "Little bits of this and that".  I squared it up (original design was a hexagon table topper), and enlarged it a bit to make it a 24" quiltie.

Also finished is one of my 4-patch posy baby quilts.  I have one other quilt ready for quilting, so I should have a few quilts to take to guild this week, for donation to the local children's hospital.

I'm on a roll, and hoping to finish a few more quilts and get my stash numbers into the black and over the 100 yards used mark for the end of the year.

You can check out more design walls over at Patchwork Times.

Stash Report - Nov 13

Lots going on in my sewing room this week.  Overall progress is quite encouraging.  The mystery quiltie is quilted, and ready to hand-stitch the binding.  Both pink & green quilts are done and one is sandwiched and ready for it's turn at quilting.  And I made progress on my black and white quilt.  That one is slow going with all the little triangles, but I think it might even make the deadline. 
What did all that work mean for my stash?  Good news.  2 1/2 yards used for borders and extra blocks for the pink and green baby quilts, and 2 yards backing for one of them.  1 yard used for border and backing for mystery quilt.

So that's 5-1/2 yards out, nothing in this week.

Stash Totals for this year:
Overall, 99.75 yards in, 97.5 yards out.
Net for the year:  2.25 yards in.

Check out more stash reports over at Patchwork Times.

A Quilter's Journey - I-Spy quilt

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I'm posting a completed quilt - about one a week - to follow my journey as a quilter from its beginning.  Today's quilt is an I-spy quilt.  I saw the concept on-line, and thought this would be a great way to use up some of my novelty fabrics.  So I pulled out all the different items I had, and started cutting.

One thing I learned very quickly - fussy cutting fabric can be tedious.  I cut 48 different 3" squares of fabric before I ran out of variety.  The size was picked based on the general size of the fussy pictures, rather than a real plan for the finished quilt.  Then I cut 160 little 1" squares of blue interlock to create all the snowballs.

When I started to consider the layout, I thought sashing with cornerstones would work best - and I carefully fussy cut 1" squares for all the cornerstones - 63 of them.  I sashed and bordered this quilt with interlock fabric, and used one of the novelty prints on the backing to provide stability. The interlock has a lot of stretch, so that was necessary.  The binding is the same fabric as the back.  At this point, I still hadn't worked out the details of 1/4" binding, so this quilt has a large binding.  The quilt was finished in April 2004 and donated to the local children's hospital.

How Cute!

A few days ago, I ordered a carry bag for my backup sewing machine.  After checking the site, and carefully measuring the machine, I determined that the smallest bag would fit.  With the added bonus that I could then carry it on the plane, and it was a couple of inches under the max size so I shouldn't have any issues with any of the airlines.  This is good, because I'm heading to Texas for a quilting retreat in Feb, and wanted an easy way to take my machine on the flight.

This arrived on my doorstep today.  The package, not the chair :)  That looks pretty small, for a sewing machine to fit into.

Oh, right - it's collapsible.  Cool. And what a lovely colour.

Getting the machine in, however, did not prove as simple as expected.  The case claims the interior is 16x12x9.  My machine is 16x11x7, according to my measurements.  So that should work fine.  A little snug end to end, but other than that there should be plenty of room.

Not so!  On measuring the opening of the case, it's more like 15x11.  Hmmmmmmm. 

But, I'm stubborn.  So let's see what we can do here.  I twisted, and turned, and stretched.  Then twisted some more to extract the half-stuffed machine, and restarted the process. 

Eventually I opened the top zipper, stuffed the top of the machine in through the front and up through the second opening, wiggled the base around to sqeeze it through, and breathed a sigh of relief.  It fits!

Getting it out was almost as difficult, as I tried to remember which part went in last.  But out it came - and the second stuffing went much more smoothly.  So, the machine is now carefully stowed away in it's little carry bag, and I'm hoping it will stretch just a smidgen before I have to load it up for the plane.