Designer Quartz 29 | Getting to know the machine embroidery capabilities

Yesterday, we looked at the sewing mode features of the Husqvarna Viking Designer Quartz 29. Isn’t the quality of those stitches impressive? I can’t wait to check out what’s in the embroidery mode!

It’s easy to switch from sewing to embroidery. Remove the accessory tray and slide on the embroidery unit. The Designer Quartz 29 automatically switches into embroidery mode. That’s super easy!

The first step to getting set up is to calibrate the embroidery arm. Ensure the area around the arm is free so it won’t bump into something and get damaged. Wait for the embroidery machine to tell you when to remove or attach the hoop. I’ve seen too many people get excited and attach the hoop when the machine isn’t ready yet. Patience!

Pop-up message to calibrate the embroidery arm

There are two embroidery hoops in the box. One is 170 mm by 100 mm, and the second is 100 mm by 100 mm. While these are small compared to the hoops for the larger machines, they are large enough for many embroideries, especially lettering for personalizing items. Many designs will fit in either of these two hoops. If a design doesn’t fit the 170 by 100 hoop, you can use the mySewnet embroidery software to split it and stitch it out with multiple hoopings.

Two traditional (two-part) embroidery hoops

An optional spring hoop (40 mm by 40 mm) is available for the Designer Quartz 29. This one is great for small designs on items that are hard to hoop, like infant clothing, collars, and cuffs. Its inner ring is released with the spring clips.

An optional spring hoop

You’ll find the list of hoops in the Machine Settings (top right-hand corner), then select Settings. There, you’ll find the button for Hoop Selection. Select the hoop you’re using that’s appropriate for your design. It’s always best to use the smallest hoop possible.

The list of compatible hoops

I started by looking at all the screens. WOW, there are a lot of features in embroidery mode. The more I explore the embroidery mode with the assistance of the User’s Guide, the more impressed I am with all the features!

On the first screen, you can load a single design from multiple sources or combine multiple designs. More on that in a minute.

Along the top ribbon bar is the Embroidery Mode indicator, which is where we are now. Then you’ll find Embroidery Edit, mySewnet (I’ll talk about that tomorrow), Multi-select (needs to be ON if loading more than one design), and the Machine Settings buttons.

The large white rectangle is the stitchable area for the selected hoop (170 by 100).

The Embroidery Mode screen is used to load a design.

You can load designs and fonts internally to the Designer Quartz 29 or from external sources.

To access the built-in options, you’ll see three alternatives for loading a design: built-in designs (180), Fonts (10), or the File Manager. The File Manager is used to load a design saved in the machine’s internal memory.

Use the arrows at the bottom to scroll through the 180 designs covering various styles.

Some of the 180 built-in embroidery designs

There are 10 fonts, which surprised me. Some are available in 3 sizes, so many options exist for personalizing items.

The font menu

Use File Manager to load files you’ve created and saved in the machine’s internal memory.

Loading a file from File Manager (built-in memory)

There are two external sources from which you can retrieve and save files. You can save and access files on a USB. You’ll find those options under Machine Settings (top right-hand corner), then Settings.

The second option is to connect to Wi-Fi and sign in to your mySewnet account where you can access designs from the mySewnet Library (subscription required) or save and retrieve files from your cloud storage, included with your free mySewnet account. There’s also the mySewnet Embroidery Software to consider. I’m saving that option for tomorrow.

There are many options to load designs!

Files can be retrieved or saved to a USB

The USB must be small, 1 – 2 GB, for the Designer Quartz 29 to process the contents. Here’s a picture of the designs that I saved on my USB. One design is from the mySewnet embroidery software, and the other is a built-in design.

Selecting a design from the USB

When I select an embroidery design, I can see the information about the design including the number of stitches, the scale percentage (if changed), the number of colors, and the length and width. All of this is vital to the success of stitching your design or combining multiple designs on the screen.

Information about the selected design

Let’s take a closer look at the lettering. While the spaces on the keyboard are a good size, this might be an excellent spot to use the stylus. The fonts include extended sets with numbers and characters so that you can write anything. The font I’m using has three sizes, which you can see on the right above the keyboard. If a size is unavailable, the size option button will not be accessible.

I can change the font and size in the same line of text to ensure maximum flexibility. The letters will appear on the screen as they will appear in the embroidery.

The Confirm was hard to see initially, but it’s right under the backspace button. Once I located it, I was good to go!

The font menu has many flexible options

There are many editing options: mirror the text side to side, rotate it, change the spacing between letters, and shape the text.

In this case, I used one of the shape functions to curve the text for Happy Birthday. All those features on this entry-level embroidery machine are amazing! It’s fun to add a little curve to dress up the lettering. I could spend hours playing with all the possibilities.

Hmm, I see many possibilities for quilt labels, and the available hoop sizes are perfect. With all the different fonts, font sizes, and editing tools, you will surely find lettering that works for you!

Some of the font options

I created a seasonal image and found a snowman in the built-in embroidery designs. Then, I played with the fonts and framed the snowman.

I’m now in Embroidery Editing, where I have multiple options for editing the design.

Wow, there’s so much I can do. I can rotate the design, scale it, change the thread colors, change the background color for the hoop, mirror the design, save, and delete it. The arrows on the left allow me to move the designs around, and the Arrange tool on the far left enables me to select a single design and edit that one rather than the combined motifs.

Who knew there would be so many features? I’m in awe at all the possibilities. There’s much that I still need to figure out, but after spending some time with the Designer Quartz 29 and with the help of the User’s Guide, I’m quickly learning.

The Embroidery Edit screen

Here are some of the options for scaling the design. I love these tools as they make it easy for the design to fit within the parameters of the hoop. I’ll play a lot more with these options. Remember that the maximum recommended for scaling up or down is 20%. The Designer Quartz will not let you exceed those limits.

Scaling options in Embroidery Edit

Let’s look at the thread colors. The location of each color is visible when you select its number from the list at the bottom of the screen. You won’t see the colors in the design until you choose the colorway, so it’s a good idea to review each color before you start stitching so you know where each one goes.

Going through the Thread Color Edit

I hooped my fabric and a Tear-A-Way stabilizer. Because of the density of the snowman, I added an extra piece of stabilizer beneath the hoop before starting to stitch.

I’ve threaded the Designer Quartz 29 and I love that needle threader.

Using the needle threader to thread the needle

There are options on the Embroidery Stitch Out screen, and I’ll cover more details tomorrow. I see Exact Positioning and Corner Check, which is fantastic as these tools allow me to position my design exactly where I want it! I can advance stitch by stitch or select an exact stitch to go to. There’s also the Embroidery Settings and the Lock Screen.

With so many options, going through them all took some time, but I’ve got it!  And guess what? They are all outlined in the User’s Guide! I’ve almost worn my copy out as I flip back and forth through the pages and play with the buttons!

But seriously, going through the embroidery edit and the embroidery stitch-out screens is super important. There are so many tools that you’ll find on a more sophisticated embroidery machine, and they are here on the Designer Quartz 29. I’m amazed to see some of them here!

The Embroidery Stitch-out Screen

It’s time to start stitching!

Stitching out the embroidery design

As the letters stitch, they appear in color on the screen. So, what you see in color has already been stitched. Remember, we reviewed the color blocks earlier to identify where each color would stitch.

The cross-hair on the screen tells us where the next stitch will start.

The stitching is on the 7th color

The most exciting message is the one that says Your embroidery is finished. It didn’t take long to stitch this out at all.

Your embroidery is finished, pop-up message.

Look at this! I’m very impressed by the embroidery. It looks amazing. See how the two layers of Tear-A-Way prevented any puckering on the snowman’s densely stitched body. Now I need to trim the jump stitches on his face.

The embroidery design

And there you have it, my first impression of the Husqvarna Viking Designer Quartz 29 as an embroidery machine. Wow, I must say that it packs quite a punch and has many features that I’d find on a large machine. Be mindful that some features are scaled down because this is an entry-level embroidery machine. But hey! What about that 7” screen?

As I said earlier this week, this would make a great second machine or an embroidery machine to take to an embroidery class, a sewing retreat, or even the cottage. You still get most of the bells and whistles without the weight.

I’m super impressed.

Tomorrow, I’ll continue with machine embroidery and look at the Wi-Fi connectivity and the mySewnet ecosystem.

Have a great day!!

Ciao!!

Husqvarna VIKING Designer Quartz 29

This is part 3 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 2: Exploring the advanced sewing modes and features of the HV Designer Quartz 29

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