This bookmark uses one of the finishing methods we’ll learn in the Bookmarks 101: Simple, Smart, and Swanky Finishes class beginning November 16 at The Stitchers’ Village, but instructions for this specific project will also be on the Funk & Weber website.

The Monday “What have you done lately?” accountability post, where I announce my Needle and Thread: Stitching for Literacy program promotion goal for the week and fess up on last week’s goal.

Last week my goal was to work on a business plan of sorts. I failed. Miserably. Maybe I’ll get some guidance this week when I talk to the TNNA marketing guru. That consultation is my goal for this week.

On to the fun news (business? bleh!). Last spring, when Needle and Thread: Stitching for Literacy partnered with TNNA’s Stitch N’ Pitch℠, Funk & Weber Designs began designing baseball bookmarks. As per our usual speedy schedule (ahem), we just released the first pattern at The Needlework Show, in time for off-season stitching–for those who can’t get enough baseball or who want to be ready for the 2010 season or perhaps for holiday giving (maybe with one of these books?).

The Going, Going, Gone! design is stitched on a Tokens and Trifles Trinkets™ star-shaped sewing card, so it travels well and is easy to stitch in hand, no hoop required. Perfect for a baseball game, see?

Since the bookmark uses materials that you may not have in your stash–the sewing card, Treasure Tape™, and a good bit of Kreinik metallic thread–we’ve assembled them in a kit, which also makes the project easy to pick up and take with you to, say, a baseball game. Are you seeing a theme here?

Kits go out this week to shops that ordered during The Needlework Show. I’ll get the pattern on the Funk & Weber website soon, along with a detailed finishing tutorial. Naturally, I have a number of finishing ideas, more than will fit on the printed pattern, so I’ll share them on the website.

As part of the Needle and Thread: Stitching for Literacy pattern lineup, Funk & Weber Designs will donate 10% of profits from this kit to literacy programs.

We have a second baseball bookmark underway. I hope to release it at the spring Needlework Show, but I know better than to guarantee it.