Fleece Lap Blankets

30" x 40" Fleece Lap Blanket

(Cut 38" x 48" to allow for fringe.)

You will need:

1⅛ yards polar fleece

Olfa rotary cutter, ruler and mat

sharp scissors

marking pen

yardstick

seam ripper

Step #1:

Fold fleece in half lengthwise. Using ruler and rotary cutter, square off left and right edges, measuring length at 38". Mark width of fleece at 24" from fold of fabric and trim.

Step #2:

Cut a 4" square from each corner that is not on a folded edge. Cut ALMOST to the corner of the square, then use your scissors to finish the corner cut. This will give you a clean cut and you won't cut into the adjoining fringe.

Step #3:

Cut 1" wide x 4" deep strips around blanket being careful not to cut any strips along the folded edge. Cut ALMOST to the 4" mark, then finish cutting to the mark with a sharp scissors.

Step #4:

Using a seam ripper, make a tiny slit in the top of each piece of fringe.

Step #5:

Feed the end of the fringe through the back side of the slit you just cut and pull through to the front to create the fringed edge.

Notice that this makes a neat design on the back of the fringe.

These are quite addicting--making just one is not enough. You will find yourself hunting for additional fabric to make more. This is just a suggested size for a lap blanket. You can adjust the measurements to whatever size you want and make the fringe shorter or longer. Whatever length you decide to make your fringe, remember to adjust the size of the square you cut out of each corner. Have fun!

"Key" Lime Cupcakes

These are so-o-o-o-o good! They are moist and the combination of the cake, filling and frosting is heavenly.

Graham Cracker Crust

¾ cup graham cracker crumbs

2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

4 Tbsp. butter, melted

Mix crumbs, sugar and melted butter in a small bowl until well blended and mixture starts to clump together. Divide evenly among 24 cupcake liners placed into muffin tins.

Press crumbs down firmly with a spoon. (It was hard to get a spoon down into the cupcake liner so I used the top of a honey container that I had saved. This helped me press the crumbs down compactly.)

Set aside prepared crusts. Preheat the oven to 350° and prepare the cake portion. 

Lime Cake

2¼ cups flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder (yes, tablespoon not teaspoon)

½ tsp. salt

½ cup butter (1 cube), room temperature

1½ cups granulated sugar

2 egg whites

2 eggs

1 Tbsp. lime zest

½ cup milk

½ cup buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl. Set aside.

In large bowl of electric mixer, beat butter and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add lime zest. Beat until blended. (I usually dump everything together when I bake but follow this method. They will be ever so light and worth it.)

Combine milk, buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl or glass measuring cup. Whisk until blended. With electric mixer at low speed, alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture, beating well after each addition until all mixtures are well blended.

Spoon batter evenly into prepared graham cracker crusts. An ice cream scoop works well to divide the batter evenly without much mess.

Bake 20-22 minutes. Cool cupcakes in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pans and allow to cool completely on wire rack. (This is important. They must be completely cooled before adding filling.)

Key Lime Filling

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

5 oz. Key lime juice (I used regular limes)

14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk (about 1¼ cups)

Place all ingredients in an electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds then increase to medium speed and blend for 2 minutes. Place in separate bowl and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.

When ready to fill cupcakes, place mixture into a disposable decorating bag fitted with a Wilton #230 tip, also called a Bismarck tip. Hold the bag and tip straight up and down and insert the tip into the cupcake about one inch. Press filling into the cupcake until the top of the cupcake begins to rise up. Filling may ooze out of the cupcake. Simply scrape off with a knife and discard or save in a bowl to eat later.

You can also fill the cupcakes using the cone* method but if you're going to make more of these, I would suggest getting this tip. It comes in the Wilton Cupcake Decorating Set. Just the Bismarck tip alone costs about $3 and the kit includes 4 different tips plus 8 disposable decorating bags.

I tried to scrimp at first and just put the tip into the bag by itself. I would suggest that you attach the tip with a coupler pictured here, otherwise the filling will ooze out of the bag around the tip, creating a big mess. Any place that carries Wilton supplies such as WalMart, Michaels, Jo-ann Fabric & Crafts, etc. will also carry couplers.

There will be filling left over. I ended up eating all of it. Halving the recipe wouldn't give you enough and reducing all ingredients by 25% just makes odd amounts that are hard to measure. So either eat the leftovers or just save it in the refrigerator for another day.

*cone method: Using a small paring knife, cut out a good portion of the cupcake top in the shape of a cone. Carefully remove the cone. Fill the cavity with a teaspoon or so of the filling. Replace the cone top. Cover with frosting.

Key Lime Buttercream Frosting

1 cup butter, room temperature

6 cups powdered sugar

3 Tbsp. Key lime juice (I used regular limes)

Place all ingredients in mixer bowl at low speed until powdered sugar is incorporated. Then on medium speed beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes, scraping the bowl as necessary. Place frosting in disposable decorating bag fitted with a Wilton 1M star tip. Starting at the outside edge of the cupcake top, squeeze frosting in a circle around the cupcake while continuing another circle within that circle and ending up in the center.

This sounds like a lot of work but believe me, they are worth it. Once you get the hang of the filling, the rest is a piece of cake. Enjoy and don't eat too many!

Blackout Curtains Tutorial

These curtains are pretty basic, but I thought I'd do a tutorial for them anyway.  You will need to measure your windows to see how much fabric to get.  You will need cute fabric for the front panels, and then blackout lining for the back.  I got the same amount of blackout lining as I did my other fabric.  You will end up using a bit less, but only a couple inches or so.  I also got spring rods to hang the curtains on.  The closer you can get the curtains to the window, the better they will block out the light.

 fabric for curtains

blackout lining

spring curtain rods

Make the front curtain panels just like you would normally, but don't finish the top until after we add the blackout lining.  I added this 4 inch block of white at the top of mine just for some added interest.

I don't have a serger so I just did a zig zag stitch on all the edges.

Hem the sides of the curtain and make sure to do a larger hem so that we can attach the blackout lining later.  I did an inch.

I wanted to do a blind hem on the bottom so I found this tutorial.  Luckily I even already had a blind hem foot.  Yes!  It looks so good!

Now that everything but the top part of your curtain is done, you want to attach the blackout lining.  I cut the lining so that it was even with the edge at the top, but then about 1/4 of an inch shorter on all the other sides.  The nice thing about the blackout lining is that is doesn't fray, so you don't have to finish any of the edges.  Pin the lining in place.

Now just sew on the sides and the top a simple straight stitch to keep the lining in place.  Sew right on top of your existing stitches on the sides, and I just did a longer stitch on top just to keep it in place.  Don't sew the bottom in place at all.

Then sew a loop at the top for your rod to go through.

And hang the curtains.

And block out the light.