I hope you enjoyed making the 3 different heart designs this week including yesterday’s heart applique placement, and learning more about the new Brother Innov-ís BQ3100 machine. I’ve used this machine for a few weeks now and I’d like to share with you some of the features I really enjoyed using.
The new Brother BQ3100
Laser light
Press the laser light button on the LCD screen and the red laser line shows on your fabric. By default, the laser light is in the middle, but you can adjust to the right or left by pressing the + or – buttons.
Laser light button on the LCD screen
This is a great feature to use when sewing half-square triangles. Line up the laser line with the corners of a square and stitch a diagonal line across the square following the red laser line. Keep your eye on the line, not on the needle. Now there’s no need to draw a line before sewing. What a time saver! You can read more about this feature in my October 2019 QUILTsocial post.
Use the laser light as a sewing guide.
Wide table
The wide table comes with the machine and is a generous 16″ x 25″ size. It’s perfect for large projects!
Help screen
One of the features on this machine that I’ve come to really appreciate is the easily accessible help screen. When you press the question mark key (?) at the bottom of the LCD screen, the Help menu pops up with these three options: Operation Guide, Sewing Guide, and Pattern Explanation.
Press Sewing Guide and you see this menu. Tap any of the words on the screen and multiple pages come up explaining each technique.
The Help menu on the LCD screen
Page 2 of the Sewing Guide looks like this. Again, just tap any of the words for detailed explanation and pictures of each technique. There are even some videos here that will help you even more.
The sewing guide on the LCD screen
The Brother BQ3100 is a very smart machine! It lets you know when the bobbin is running low and then stops sewing so you have to stop and fill the bobbin.
Low bobbin warning on the LCD screen
If everything is not set up properly, there’s a message to tell you what you need to do. And it won’t let you sew until you do it!
Error message on the LCD screen
Advanced Quilt Design Software
This is a new quilt design program that will be available in Canada very soon. This software has 243 quilt blocks, is ScanNCut DX compatible, and can save your quilt blocks in FCM format, plus so much more! You can easily load in your own designs to create unique quilt layouts. Advanced Quilt Design allows you to try out multiple design variations on screen before you start sewing on your Brother sewing machine. It’s also compatible with the ScanNCut DX machine, so you can create custom quilt blocks and cut them out on the ScanNCut.
New quilt design software
Automatic fabric sensor
While sewing, the Brother BQ3100 automatically detects the thickness of the fabric and automatically adjusts the presser foot pressure to ensure your fabric is fed smoothly. Make sure you have this feature turned on!
Just a few of the adjustments you can make
Sideways and directional sewing
Perfect for trendy decorative mending, the machine sews straight and zigzag stitches not only forward and backward but sideways. In addition to sideways sewing, this machine can stitch diagonally when using a straight stitch.
Sideways and directional sewing stitches
Here’s a short video that’s fun to watch. It shows a few of the many great features of the Brother Quilt Club machines. I hope you enjoy it!
Please join me again next month on QUILTsocial when I show you even more of the great features on the Brother BQ3100.
2 comments
Thank you for your time. I am intending to buy one of these machines, but wanted to find out as much as possible before I buy. Your lessons showing some of the things this machine can do is soooo exciting, I cannot wait to try it out.
Again thank you so much for your detailed ‘How To’ directions.
You are welcome. Enjoy your new machine!