A Flagstaff nonprofit inspires creativity, confidence, and connection through the textile arts
The soft whir and clack, clack, clack of sewing machines punctuates the hum of conversation. Spools of thread in every color rest on wooden pegs along the walls. Any tool for transforming fabric and textiles—cutting, measuring, marking, pressing, fastening, and finishing—sits within easy reach. There is even a clear tub full of assorted buttons, enough to make almost any crafter giddy with possibility.
“What are you working on?” asks Shelly Breunig, workroom associate with Threaded Together. She floats from one workstation to the next, assisting novice and seasoned sewists alike with whatever projects they’ve brought to the Wednesday evening Create + Connect—a donation-based program that provides participants with instruction, materials, access to equipment, and a sense of community.
Breunig operated a quilt shop in Flagstaff for several years. “I’ve taught a lot of sewing classes,” she says. It shows in the way she effortlessly jumps in to troubleshoot problems or offer guidance to each maker. That evening, participants were working on a range of projects—from altering a thrift store dress, to making RV curtains, to learning to sew a pillow.
One sewist describes how Threaded Together has become a place where she finds the confidence to create. She especially appreciates having access to an industrial sewing machine that easily handles heavy fabric and layers in the bicycle frame bag she was making.
STITCHING TOGETHER COMMUNITY
This scene and sentiment strongly reflect the nonprofit organization’s mission to inspire creativity and connection for all people through textile arts. Founded in 2019 by Lindsey Watson and Tina LaChance, the organization set out to build mentorship, education, and employment pathways that empower women and teens facing adversity through skill-building, confidence, and opportunity.
The co-founders understood the power of social connection in building community resilience, but never imagined it would show up that inaugural year in the hiring and training of sewists to produce more than 25,000 masks and gowns for tribal, healthcare, and community partners during the Covid lockdowns.
The sewing community found ways to stay connected during the pandemic, but as restrictions lifted many in Flagstaff were in dire need of safe, accessible opportunities to reconnect and rediscover a sense of belonging. Threaded Together pivoted once again, offering creative textile programming for children after school and teens in the juvenile justice system, while also launching an in-depth sewing and textile vocational course for low-income adults.
ACCESS: THE KEY THAT UNLOCKS CREATIVITY AND EMPOWERMENT
In 2023, Threaded Together’s work was recognized with one of Flagstaff’s most prestigious honors: a Viola Award for Community Impact. For Threaded Together, the true measure of impact is accessibility—ensuring that cost, experience, or circumstance never stand in the way of creative learning and practice.
Keeley Aldridge, lifelong “sewer and maker of things,” and art education manager with Threaded Together, shares how accessibility is woven into every program—and why it matters so deeply. “With Create + Connect, there is no financial burden,” she says. “Since it is free or donation-based, you can show up with nothing, grab fabric, a pattern, and walk out with something in your hands.”
“When you can create, it installs an amazing sense of empowerment,” Aldridge says. “A huge part of sewing and crafting in general is being able to identify problems and move through them. People walk out feeling really empowered and proud of themselves.”
Kristen Ewer, a member of Threaded Together’s board of directors, echoes this: “[It is the] excitement and self-confidence that comes with having that idea and putting it into reality.” Together, their insights show how the creative process fosters confidence and problem-solving—and how, in such a space, the possibilities become endless.
Threaded Together continues to center youth engagement and the therapeutic benefits of crafting and textile arts through a behavioral health partnership with Flagstaff Medical Center. They also offer affordable group classes focused on foundational sewing skills, along with private lessons for more specific or advanced techniques, and even alteration services.
The Create + Connect workshop is held every Wednesday from 5:30–7:30pm at 2710 N. Steves Blvd. in Flagstaff. Participants can bring a project they are working on or start something new. Learn more about Threaded Together and all it offers at threadedtogether.org.
THE 2026 FLAG WOOL & FIBER FESTIVAL
This is the third year that Threaded Together will present the annual Flag Wool & Fiber Festival. The festival brings together wool- and fiber-producing animals, producers, artisans, and the wider community into one vibrant space full of shared curiosity, creativity, and hands-on learning. The event also connects guests to indigenous wool and fiber craft traditions, as well as modern fiber arts, and celebrates renewable slow fashion and expression.
The festival has been a part of Flagstaff’s cultural landscape in one form or another since 1996, when the Arizona Heritage Society launched a wool and fiber festival at the Pioneer Museum grounds. By 2015, it had taken shape as the “Flag Wool & Fiber Festival,” and by 2020, the Four Corners Fiber Collective nonprofit was formalized to provide the organizational structure needed to support the event’s continued growth and popularity.
When the Four Corners Fiber Collective faced a period of change in 2023, its leadership set out to identify a new host organization to carry the festival’s mission forward. By that time, Threaded Together had become a pillar of textile and fiber advocacy in the region, supported by a robust staff and programmatic infrastructure.
“Most of us who work or volunteer with Threaded Together started going to the festival as patrons,” says Ewer. When Four Corners Fiber Collective approached co-founder Lindsey Watson about taking it on, it made perfect sense. “The festival is an echo of our mission to bring fiber arts into people’s everyday lives,” says Aldridge. “And to listen to elders that can teach us, we really value the opportunity to give space to a lot of these folks that we’re having speak. It’s very important to us to amplify these voices.”
After just a few years under Threaded Together’s stewardship, the Flag Wool & Fiber Festival has outgrown its original home. This year, it moves to the Fort Tuthill Fairgrounds, opening the door to an even bigger and more vibrant celebration. Festivalgoers can look forward to an expanded lineup of food and art vendors, hands-on workshops, free hourly demonstrations, and—best of all—more fiber-bearing animals than ever.
“We’ll even have camels—they’re so fun and delightfully silly,” says Aldridge, “along with alpacas, sheep, goats, and rabbits.” Visitors can witness the full journey of fiber, from shearing and spinning to dyeing, weaving, and knitting, and even explore the art of upcycling and transforming materials into entirely new creations.
This year’s Flag Wool & Fiber Festival takes place June 6–7. Admission is $10 for adults for the whole weekend—children attend for free—so the whole family can join the fun. FlagWool.com.
