My First Runner's Holiday Streak

Well, I made it to day 16 and then I pooped out. I got sick and then exhausted.....but it was still so good. I told myself when I first started it I never wanted to feel guilty. So, in the end, I didn't feel guilty for stopping the streak but would love to try it again next year:)

I will run each day from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day

Total Miles 16.76

On November 25th, I was looking through Facebook and ran across a link that my pastor, Tim Keel posted, "To all my running friends out there - a fun Thanksgiving to New Year's

Day challenge. Read this article, then let me know if you're game!"  A Season to Streak So, I was curious and read the article. Basically a challenge to run everyday from Thanksgiving to New Year's.

I started running off and on about 18months ago. I have never run in a race but have always wanted to.  Like most exercise, it is so easy for me to come up with excuses that I cannot do it, but when I actually go outside and run, I feel refreshed and I have not one ounce of regret afterwards. 

If you know me, you know that I have a hard time sitting still, I have a compulsion for making, my mind it full of ideas for my next projects, and with two young girls I easily get stressed out with all the things I think must get done. And for more than three years I have dealt with lots of fatigue and headache problems. Running has been a healthy way to relieve my stress. The hardest part is actually getting myself out there to do it, thinking I have other more important things to do, while my anxiety and headaches grow stronger. Of course, the few times I actually get myself to run, I feel so much better and I never have one ounce of regret. 

So, I have decided to take up this challenge during not only the busiest time for my family with all the holiday activities but it is the busiest time for my textile business. I will run each day from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day

Total Miles 16.76

Day 8

1.27

All month I have been busy making new scarves for my Kansas City Textile Studio Holiday Show at this weekend. Sunday I started a new batch of scarves. My goal was to weave five of them by today. While weaving them everyday, I had this cheesy image of me wearing them all for a photo. Each day of the challenge I have taken a photo to document my run. This afternoon I when I finished my last scarf, I got my work out clothes on and wrapped all five scarves around me. At this stage of the weaving process the scarves are all connected, all thirteen yards. I took this photo of me at the park before my run. BTW, it was 22 degrees out. I did put on a jacket afterwards. 

My friend, Gina just happened to be starting her run as I finished mine. She took this photo of me:)

Day 7

1.15 miles

I call this my "drive-thru run".  I had twenty minutes to pick up Emma from preschool that was five minutes away from my house. I left my house at 1:40, drove six minutes away to this Starbucks, quickly got out of my car and ran 1.15 miles. Then I got in my car and went through the Starbucks drive-thru to order a coffee to warm me up and made it in time to pick up Emma at 2:02:) 

Day 6

3.11 miles

Listened to this great message from Jacob's Well Pastor Isaac Anderson today while running.

and ended my run listening to this song,

Day 5, 12/2/13

1.1 miles

I decided to do this run right before picking up Emma from her preschool. I was busy working getting things made for my holiday sale this weekend. I had in the back of my mind I should just skip my run before I pick up Emma. I thought I had too many things to do and time is precious when she is at school. But twenty minutes before I had to pick her up, I quickly put on my workout clothes, got in the car, drove five minutes away to her school, parked my car and ran my one mile. YAY! This photo is of the church across from Emma's school. I finished my mile right as I came to this sign. 

Day 4, 12/1/13

4.53 miles

My stretching ground.

Day 3, 11/30/13

1.01 miles

18 months ago I ran my first mile since high school here. 

Dealing with stress on a daily basis, it is amazing what running outside can do it me. I feel healthier and more grateful for being alive when I run, even if it is just 1 mile:)

Day 2, 11/29/13

3.06 miles

Sidewalks of KCMO

Day 1, Thanksgiving November 28, 2013

1.53 miles

After sleeping in, drinking a little coffee and weaving a few minutes while my girls were playing in Thanksgiving morning, I decided I was up for the challenge. I ran right after I posted this on Instagram.

My rules:

1. Must run a minimum of 1 mile per day

2. I must feel good-great during and after my run. This way, I am not pushing myself too much.

3. If I get injured, I will replace running with some other form of exercise each day.

4. If the weather is awful, I can run inside....I hate the treadmill....so I might use the elliptical instead

5. I must stretch and drink lots of water after each run

Benefits so far:

* Each run I feel a little bit lighter from all the stress

* I am so happy to be taking care of my health, physically and emotionally for my family and for myself

*During many runs, I find myself feeling so grateful that I am alive. 

Kansas City Textile Studio Holiday Show for December

I am excited to be working on this event for the Kanas City Textile Studio. The Kansas City Textile Studio is hosting a Holiday Sale at the Leedy-Voulkos Arts Center. Buy handmade this holiday season! Come down the first Friday and Saturday in December.

For more information, go to our website: www.kctextilestudio.com/holiday-sale

Friday, December 6, 6 - 9pm

Saturday, December 7, 10am - 2pm

Support Kansas City artists and makers this holiday season by shopping local at the KCTS Holiday Show at the Leedy-Voulkos. The Holiday Show will showcase a diverse selection of unique handmade goods by artists working in the Kansas City area. Participating artists show include Debbie Barrett Jones of BillySue Textiles, Kim Eichler-Messmer of KimE-M Quilts, Jessika Cates of Collective Individual, Tabbetha McCale Evans, and Alice Youngblood and Cristin Llewellyn of Owl+Mouse textile designs, Travis Porter of tArvis , Emily Blodgett-Panos, Julie Wallace, Lynn Thornet of Starship Thunder and Robin's Nest Outfitters.

Here are some items I will be selling.

Teal Wave Three Panel Commission

In the mist of the starting up Kansas City Textile Studio, I have been working on a new commission. Ever since I graduated I have been doing most all of my dye work either outside on my driveway or in my garage. Each time I dyed, I carefully had to carry each bucket of dyed water through my house and rinse everything in my bathtub. With each year passing, I dreaded the idea of dyeing at home for many reasons. Safety for myself and my family, all the energy I put into making sure I wasn't making a mess, while hauling all the buckets of water through my house and the pain my back and knees went through, having to constantly bend down to dye my yarn on the ground and rinse everything in my tub. Just thinking about it makes me tired.

So, you can imagine how grateful and relieved I am to finally have a safe, clean, well equipped and efficient place to do all my dye work. YAY!!! Here are some images of my process so far.

 

One down, two more to go.

The Kansas City Textile Studio announces its Fall Exhibition: New Work by Kim Eichler-Messmer and Debbie Barrett Jones

Kim Eichler-Messmer, “Sky.AR.March”, 56" x 52.5", hand dyed cotton quilt (left) 

Debbie Barrett Jones, detail of “Aqua Inlay #1”, 26" x 30", hand dyed, hand woven wall hanging (right)

Kansas City, MO – The Kansas City Textile Studio announces its fall exhibition: New Work by Kim Eichler-Messmer and Debbie Barrett Jones. Friday October 18, 6 – 9pm at 924 E. 5th St, Kansas City, MO 64016. www.kctextilestudio.com

Kim Eichler-Messmer and Debbie Barrett Jones, two local artists and co-founders of the Kansas City Textile Studio, both explore color in their work through the process of color-mixing and percentage-gradation dyeing. Barrett Jones’ woven panels reveal the communication that passes between one color thread intersecting another. Her panels comprise vibrating colors and elegant patterns, narratives in flux according to one’s proximity to each piece. Eichler-Messmer’s landscape quilts are inspired by the dramatic Midwestern sky. Her own photographs of the sky serve as reference for the color use and proportion in each quilt.

Debbie Barrett Jones is a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute Fiber program and has run her weaving business, Billy Sue Textiles, since 2008. She has also exhibited her work widely and completed numerous large commissions in the Kansas City area including Children’s Mercy Hospital and Community Christian Church. Kim Eichler-Messmer is an Assistant Professor in the Fiber department at the Kansas City Art Institute and a quilter. Kim has exhibited her work widely, is having a book published on fabric dyeing for quilters, and has designed quilts for Pottery Barn Teen.

The Kansas City Textile Studio is a small art center in the historic Columbus Park neighborhood of Kansas City that is dedicated to providing education in textiles and fiber arts, affordable and well-equipped communal studio space, community gatherings, and fiber art related exhibitions and sales.

Share This and Get a FREE Raffle Ticket

You have a chance to win one of three prizes for our Grand Opening. And all you have to do is click on this link and "share" this link/image on Facebook timeline. We will then put your name on our $5 raffle ticket. The winners will be drawn on Sunday September 29th. Good luck and thank you for helping:)

Weaving Away.....

With only Kansas City Textile Studio Grand Opening just ten days away, my scarf inventory is low. I am weaving away trying to weave a few new scarves. The plan is to over-dye them after they are finished but I am having a hard time to decide while weaving them. Well, my time is coming close to an end soooooo.....you will see:)

Happy, Safe Dyeing!

After more than seven years of dyeing my yarn outside of my house or in my garage and then carrying heavy buckets of yarn all the way through my house to the bathroom. Then taking hours to rinse on my knees at our tub. I am now one happy lady to have a safe place to dye my yarn that won't kill my back while rinsing:) We just got our new ventilation hood installed at the Kansas City Textile Studio. To read more, check out our blog or website. Grand Opening at the end of this month. YAY!!!

Deinstalling at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center

This afternoon I took down my woven pieces that were up for three month for a group preview show at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center in Kansas MO. i will be having a solo show in April/May of next year in their back gallery. These two pieces were some of my newer, more experimental pieces. Here is the description of the pieces and a few images

Debbie Barrett-Jones

1364 Threads Pulled One at a Time

Passing Though

Weaving is an art that emphasizes process. 1364 Threads Pulled One at a Time and

Passing Though represent the tension between control and happenstance during the process. From the start of a project – drawing out the plans, drafting the pattern, dyeing yarn, and using a gradation percentage process – these pieces let go of some of control. Deconstructing what would normally be a complete, clean project shows the viewers a glimpse of the pre-weaving process, much of which can be painstakingly tedious. However, this attention to detail is equally essential to the actual work on the loom.

Each woven panel came from the same warp threads on theloom. I paired each colored thread with a white thread. In1364 Threads Pulled One at a Time, half the threads were pulled from the piece at varying lengths. The left panel was woven in all white with the colored threads pulled from the piece at varying lengths. The right panel was woven in color with the white threads pulled. The deconstructed panels reflect the process in imperfect form, ideas of which we must let go.

Passing Though exemplifies the same concept in a much cleaner, more controlled context. It, too, came from a warp that had a colored thread paired with a white thread.  Instead of pulling the thread one by one with my finger, I used a needle to slowly pull each thread halfway down the woven panel. The top half was woven in color, and I alternated pulling white thread and colored thread to create smaller stripes. The bottom half was woven in white, with the same process in larger stripes. All the pulled thread met in the middle, threaded through a loom reed.

1364 Threads Pulled One at a Time

Passing Though

Kansas City Textile Studio Sale!!!!

If anyone wasn't able to make it this weekend's Preview and Sale to raise money for equipment and still wants to check out the space, Kim and I will be at the Textile Studio again this Thursday 8/22 from 6pm to 8pm. We will still have all our sale prices going - 20% and 40% off lots of great handmade textile pieces to support the purchase of equipment for the studio.