“Every stitch carries a story — between Japan and Oregon, past and present, teacher and student.”
Parallel Threads is a space where sashiko is shared with respect, care, and connection. Rooted in Japan and reaching across the Pacific Northwest, it is both a practice and a philosophy — one that honors history, resilience, and the beauty of stitches repeated by hand.
Sashiko is more than pattern or decoration. It carries stories, daily life, and generations of quiet ingenuity. At Parallel Threads, we work to create an access point for learning that acknowledges this depth while inviting new hands and hearts to join.
Why Parallel Threads?
The name reflects the path of two coastlines — Japan and Oregon — distinct yet moving side by side. Like stitches running parallel across cloth, our work is about bridging rather than blending, and about building connection through practice.
Meet Katie Brower-Wojda
I began my career as a middle school English teacher, where I discovered that the most meaningful lessons aren’t about right answers, but about listening, patience, and process. That same spirit of attentive practice eventually led me from the classroom into the world of textiles. Quilting first taught me the comfort of cloth and the beauty of tradition, but it was sashiko that opened a deeper path — one stitched with rhythm, respect, and relationship.
My sashiko practice is shaped by learning directly from Japanese teachers and by carrying those lessons back to my own landscape on Oregon’s coast. Here, between forests and ocean, I find echoes of the values that sashiko embodies: resilience, resourcefulness, and quiet beauty born from everyday life.
Parallel Threads grew from this meeting place — a way to share sashiko as both an art form and a living practice. It’s about honoring its Japanese roots while welcoming new hands into the circle. It’s about connection across coastlines, across traditions, and across stages of learning. And it’s about my own ongoing journey as a student who continues to be humbled, inspired, and renewed with every stitch.
“Quilting first taught me the comfort of cloth and patterns, but sashiko opened a deeper path — one stitched with rhythm, respect, and relationship.”
Threads Waiting for You
From the Oregon coast to Japan’s shores, every stitch reminds us that connection is possible — across oceans, across generations, across hands. Wherever you enter, you are part of the story.