How to make a Quilted, Divided Cup {Photo Heavy}

 First, let me just say that this is not my original idea. I got this idea from a woman in the Birmingham (AL) Quilt Guild. Her Bee made these to sell in their boutique at a recent quilt guild show. My mom bought one of them and gave it to me as a gift. Here it is:

I was able to get the basic instructions so I thought I would share them with you in case you want to make one (or a bunch) too.

What you will need: two 12" squares of fabric and one 12" square of a thin, flat batting. I used fusible fleece and fused the fleece to the square that will be the outside fabric of my little divided cup.

Layer your fabrics right sides together and place the batting on the top or bottom of the fabrics. Since I used fusible fleece, I fused the fleece to the back side of the exterior fabric - the large purple/pink floral in the photo above. 

Starting toward the middle of one edge, start sewing all the way around the outside of the square with a 1/4" seam allowance, leaving an opening for turning. Be sure to back stitch when you start and stop stitching on either side of the opening left for turning. In the photo below, the opening has been left in between the two pins at the bottom of the square.

I like to clip the corners at an angle before turning to reduce the bulk in the corners.

Turn this right side out (the fabrics should be right side out with the batting in between the two fabrics). Take the time to gently poke out the corners and press everything nice and flat.

Topstitch all the way around the outside edge about 1/8" from the outside edge. This will also close the opening left for turning.

Quilt your square however you would like, but I'm going to give you a simple suggestion. You can pin baste first if you want but I just pressed it nice and flat then used my walking foot to quilt it to minimize any shifting that will occur.

Quilting suggestion: using your walking foot, start quilting about 1/2" down from one corner. I lined up the outside edge of my walking foot with the line of topstitching along the outside edge. Spiral all the way around the square in this way. When you get back to where you started, stop stitching about 1/2" or so before you reach the previous line of stitching, pivot your square with the needle down and keep spiraling into the center.

            

In the photo below you can see how I am using my walking foot to know where to stop stitching and pivot. The previous line of quilting is right at the front corner (where the scissors are pointing). I stop here an pivot then keep stitching. Do this until you have spiraled all the way into the middle of the square.

Below you can see the quilted square. I quilted it from the lining because I fused the batting (fusible fleece) to the outside fabric. I wasn't worried about anything shifting on that side so I quilted from the unfused, lining side. I think you can see the quilting better on this side rather than the lining side.

Lay your quilted square on your table with the exterior fabric facing up. Fold the quilted square in half. The lining fabric should be facing you now.

At the two folded corners, draw a 4" long line from the fold to the outside edge that is 45 degrees from both the folded edge and the outside edge.

Sew on each drawn 4" long line, back stitching at the beginning and ending. It will look like the photo below at this stage.

Now you need to do the same thing with the other two corners. These are a little more difficult to mark and sew because you've already got two corners done, but just squish things flat so that you can get it done. Clips are helpful with this part!

It will look like the photos below at this point.

You've got a few choices at this point. You can just turn it right side out and call it done!

Or, you can turn it right side out and hand stitch all four corner points together to form the divided cups.

Or, you can do this in stages by machine. Before turning it right side out, first stitch the two adjacent corners together. 

Fold two adjacent corners together.

Get this under your needle the best way you can. I dropped my stitch length down to around 1mm.

I sewed forward, then backward, then forward again.

Repeat this process for the other set of adjacent corners. It will look like the image below before you turn it right side out.

Then turn it right side out. You can leave it like this, with one large area and two smaller ones.

Or you can fold down the top peaks as best you can and stitch the corner sets together.

This might be a challenge to get under your needle but it can be done. You only need to do a few tacking stitches to hold the corners all together in the middle of the cup.

Now you can enjoy your Quilted Divided Cup!

As an added detail, you could fold down the peaks and put a button or something else to hold them down. In the photo below I just pinned one peak down to give you a visual of the idea.

I want to make a video of me sewing one of these for those who prefer to watch videos rather than read. Unfortunately, I'm not there yet. I am still trying to get the correct set-up for filming and it has been a real challenge for me to this point. I'm not giving up and if I get a video done I will edit this post to include a link to the video. Until then, you just have to read and look at the pictures.