The Five Favs Series with: Jo Westfoot of The Crafty Nomad
Episode 8
The Story behind Five Favs
This series developed out of my love of movies, and specifically, movie lists. Critics and film geeks alike spend hours pouring over lists, ranking everything from best movies of the year (pretty standard fare) to top five music documentaries (getting a little more granular) to top five movie characters that shaped who you are (pretty personal and specific!). I thought it would be fun to play with this idea in the quilting world. Since we spend so much time in our sewing spaces, they contain interesting snapshots of who we are as creators, and can offer a sneak peek into other aspects of our lives, too. And so- the creation of The Five Favs Blog. This is a top five of the guests favorite items in their sewing space.
For August’s Five Favs I am delighted to welcome Jo from The Crafty Nomad here on the blog to talk about her favs. I met Jo when she reached out asking to be a part of the Five Favs. Of course I was so honored that she was interested in participating! Jo’s passion for teaching is evident in everything she does. Through her courses and membership and sewalongs and everything in between, she wants to see you expand your quilting skills and find joy in what you make, and I love that!
About Jo
“Hi there I'm Jo Westfoot, owner of The Crafty Nomad. I'm a patchwork & quilting teacher and pattern designer based in a village in historic Hampshire in the south of England. My style is bold, bright, and distinctly modern traditional. I love all aspects of the quilting hobby but I’m particularly passionate about spreading the love of free motion quilting.
Through my online sewing school and the Quilt Hive membership, I teach a wide range of patchwork and quilting techniques, offer supportive, skill-building education to quilters around the world. My mission is simple: empower others to find joy & confidence in the quilting process.”
Where Jo Works
“I feel really fortunate to have a dedicated sewing space in my home. It’s a large room which used to function as our family room, but now it’s my workspace. Having a 1 minute daily commute to work is wonderful! It’s a beautiful bright room with bifold doors at one end leading to the garden and a window at the other. The white walls are decorated with bright rainbow mini quilts. Despite being large I have crammed a lot in!
I have a desk for my PC and printer in one corner. Storage under the front window and a large Horn sewing table in the adjacent corner. The other end of the room is dedicated to storage. In one corner there is a large Ikea Kallax unit that houses my fabric and books. In the other corner is a large wardrobe that stores packing supplies and patterns and products. In between these I have a large cutting table made by my handy hubby from some Ikea Kallax units.
I love the convenience of working from home, but also being able to shut the door on weekends to separate work and life (Truth bomb: I’m not very good at doing that!).”
Fav 1 - Cutting Table
“One thing I knew I absolutely had to have in my studio was a dedicated cutting table. Truth be told it does descend occasionally into a dumping place! But it is super handy to have a really large cutting mat and table. When cleared off it’s also the perfect height for basting a quilt on!
My husband made it by bolting two 4x2 Ikea Kallax cube units together. He added nine heavy duty caster wheels to the bottom, a peg board on one end and a bin at the other end. It’s got eight really hand storage cubbies underneath. Being on wheels it means I can move it out of the way if I need a bigger floor space.
Want to take a closer look then check out my Studio tour on my blog.”
Fav 2 - Free Motion Set Up
“I'm taking this 'five top things' a bit leniently ;-). My second one is my 'free motion set up'. A big part of that is my Horn cabinet (aka sewing table), it's one of the best things I've invested in that has helped me improve my free motion quilting. It's given me the ability to lower the machine into the cabinet which means that the machine 'table', i.e. the bit of the machine that your fabric is on top of) is the same height as the actual table. When quilting this means the quilt lays nice and flat, making it easier to move it around freely when free motion quilting. Quilts can be bulky and heavy, so being able to support them and not have them drag down, means a smoother free motion experience!
By having the table flat, it also means I can lay my Supreme Slider on top easily. A slider mat also helps the quilt move more easily on the table when quilting.”
Learn how to free motion quilt with Jo here, and see her top 10 tips for quilting on a domestic machine here.
Fav 3 - Thread Storage
“Keeping my thread visible and on the wall, means that it adds to the colour decoration in my room! It's in a corner of the room that never gets sunlight so it's protected from sun damage. I've recently arranged it with all my rayons, metallics and polyesters on the left. On the right are all my Aurifil cottons arranged by rainbow colour.
It's taken me years experimenting with different threads to truly understand how to choose the right thread for my project and how to use them correctly. I love helping others not have frustration with threads via my online course: Thread Matters. And I've recently joined the Aurifil team as an Aurifilosopher which means I'll be trained to give lectures all about how to use Aurifil effectively.”
Fav 4 - Mini Quilt Wall
“My mini quilt wall has to make my top five favourites! It makes me super happy when I look at it as I enter the room, so always sets me up for a good day. This is also the backdrop for when I record classes or run live Zoom sessions so my lovely students get to see it too.
Occasionally I rearrange the quilts or swap out old for new. I hang them using 3M command hooks so they are easy to rearrange.
Fav 5 - Curtain Rail
“You'll see a theme developing here...my fifth favourite thing in my sewing space has got to be the hanging rail that my husband installed at the top of my Kallax storage unit. Essentially it's just a cheap Ikea curtain rail.
I can hang quilts on it to hide the cube boxes that house my fabric. I love that I can change it every now and then to freshen up the space or just admire my latest quilt! There are two ways to hang a quilt on it. If the quilt has a sleeve like the Make Time quilt pictured, I can just slide the rail into the quilt sleeve. If not, then I can use the clippy curtain rings to clip a quilt to it, like the Afternoon Tea runner at the end in the picture.
I've even used it as a design wall once, by clipping some batting to it. It wasn't perfect as not very stable, but it worked ok!”
Jo has a sewalong for the pictured Make Time quilting starting August 18, 2025. More info here!
