Keep Warm and Carry On

The title of this post is the name of the project I’ve just completed — a quick one that will be pretty useful. It begins with a pattern called Quilted Cook & Carry and was modified by the education department at Bernina USA as part of their All About Embroidery program. The original pattern had the pieced squares as the outside of the casserole carrier, but this was a Bernina project to incorporate embroidery, so the piecing went inside and left the outside to be embroidered. That makes sense to me, as now the inside is an attractive trivet or hot pad to protect a table from a hot dish. 🙂

The floral embroidery motif in two of the corners was part of the Bernina webinar this came from, and then I added a second motif from Embroidery Library for the alternate corners. I’m still learning, so those motifs were placed a bit too close to the edge — but I think they will be okay. The quilting is all in the ditch from the pieced side and is minimal — just enough to hold everything together.

How does the casserole carrier work? Look at the D-rings in two opposite corners. The long black strap, attached at its ends in the opposite corners from the D-rings, gets pulled up and passed through the D-rings, which then pulls up the corners of the piece and cradles the hot dish. Clever, isn’t it?

Once at whatever destination we’re headed for, the pieced interior portion will act as a hot pad, thanks to the insulating batting inside. Another plus: the whole thing folds up quite flat for storage! 🙂