The bells and whistles of the Husqvarna Viking Brilliance 75Q

Welcome to Day Two with the Husqvarna Viking Brilliance 75Q sewing machine. Did you have a chance to browse through the User’s Guide I went over yesterday? It’s easy reading, and there’s so much to learn. If you haven’t cracked open the User’s Guide, I highly recommend it!

Husqvarna Viking Brilliance 75Q

What I love about the User’s Guide is that you can learn little bits at a time. It’s not overwhelming, and it’s easy to sit right in front of the machine while you browse. Make notes about what doesn’t make sense, book a session with your local Husqvarna Viking dealer or ask those questions in your owner’s classes, and you’ll be so knowledgeable!

Today, I’m looking at the amazing features and functions of the Brilliance 75Q. While it’s a sewing-only machine, it has many bells and whistles – features you might not realize even exist on a sewing machine. What I love is the flexibility of working with the over 460 built-in stitches. I can program them, mirror them, tie off the ends of my stitching, and have the Exclusive Sewing Advisor set up the tension, select the best stitch, and so much more.

So, let’s get started and see what it’s all about. We’ll start with the Function Panel, which contains the essential operating functions of the Brilliance 75Q.

Speed

Every stitch has a pre-set, recommended Speed; however, you may want to increase or decrease the speed depending on what you’re stitching or the type of thread you’re using.

Thread Cutter

The Thread Cutter will cut the top and bobbin thread! No snips required!

Sensor Foot Up with Extra Lift

The Sensor Foot Up with Extra Lift raises and lowers your presser foot. I know, you think you know all this stuff, but wait! I once had someone say they were very frustrated because they couldn’t lift the presser foot higher to put something thick beneath the presser foot. Guess what? If you touch the Senser Foot Up button twice, the presser foot raises to its highest point, and the feed teeth drop into the bobbin area. Now you have loads of room to place your thick items.

Sensor Foot Down with Pivot

The Sensor Foot Down with Pivot lowers the presser foot and, when used in conjunction with the Needle Stop Up/Down, allows you to pivot your work. These features are priceless for applique, quilting, and chain piecing.

Needle Stop Up/Down

The Needle Stop Up/Down is one of my favorite functions. I use it for chain piecing, for applique where pivoting your fabric is essential, and for quilting – whether I’m quilting with the Interchangeable Dual Feed Foot, the Ruler Foot, or one of the many Free Motion feet. I engage this feature pretty much the minute I turn on the sewing machine.

Have a look at these features in action in this short video:

Fix Function

The Fix Function ties a knot using the top and bobbin threads wherever you want. It’s super convenient for applique, decorative stitching, garment sewing, and quilting.

Stop Function

The Stop Function is a must-have for decorative stitching. Use it in Program Mode, or during regular stitching. Once selected, the Brilliance 75Q will stop at the end of the stitch sequence. No guessing required!

Start-Stop

The Start-Stop allows you to sew without using the foot control. I love this feature when I’m doing long rows of decorative stitching, and I’ve seen people use it for quilting. Anytime you have extended lengths of stitching and you want a consistent speed, this is the feature to use.

Reverse

Press the Reverse button once, and the Brilliance 75Q sews backward until you deselect that option. You can also touch and hold the button, and your stitching will go backward until your release the button.

The Function Panel on the Brilliance 75Q

That’s a whole lot of functions, and they’re positioned right above the needle so they’re easy to reach whenever you need them. And you’ll find all these functions and how they work in the User’s Guide! Two quick pages to read, and you’ll become a star operating your Brilliance 75Q.

Now let’s pop over to the super exciting stuff located on the Color Touch Screen. And yes – it might look intimidating the first time you look at it. But once you see how easy it is to maneuver through the menus, you’ll be using your Brilliance 75Q to its fullest extent before you know it.

Today is just a quick overview. I’ll be delving deeper into some of these areas over the remainder of the week.

Let’s start with the outside area (on black) surrounding the Color Touch Screen. This area never changes, regardless of where you are within the stitch menus. You can use your finger or your stylus to select the options.

The Color Touch Screen and surrounding area

Exclusive Sewing Advisor

The two rows of buttons along the bottom are for the Exclusive Sewing Advisor. The letters denote the weight and type of fabric in your project. The second line, represented by numbers, allows me to select a specific technique.

I’ve selected Woven Light for the type and weight of fabric in the sample above, and the technique is a seam. The Exclusive Sewing Advisor automatically sets the tension to 4.0, with a stitch length of 2.0 for the straight stitch. Additionally, the recommended presser foot, the size of needle, and whether or not (in this case – not) I need to use a stabilizer also appear on the Color Touch Screen.

Get in the habit of using the Exclusive Sewing Advisor at the start of every new project or every new technique. Then you don’t need to worry about the settings. Yes, you can override these settings if you need to, but for the most part, the defaults work like a charm.

Having this Exclusive Sewing Advisor is like having a sewing expert at your side, which is great since many of us sew at odd hours, and our local dealers don’t want to hear from us at 4 a.m.!

Now let’s have a look at the functions along the right-hand side.

Quick Help

The question mark icon at the top is for Quick Help. Touch this icon and then any button on the Color Touch Screen, and you’ll get a pop-up message explaining what that function is. If you’re trying to figure something out and have no idea what to even look for in the User’s Guide, this feature is priceless. Once you have the name of the function and want additional information, it’s easy to find it in the User’s Guide.

Save

The Heart icon is for saving files (stitches, programmed stitches, or adjusted stitches) to the file menu.

Delete

Delete is pretty apparent. It deletes whatever is highlighted on the screen: a stitch, a stitch sequence, or a file.

Mirror

Mirror End to End and Mirror Side to Side are very cool features for decorative stitches. We’ll be using these features later this week.

Function Arrows

The function arrows (left and right and up and down) will move you through various Touch Screen options, like changing the stitch length or moving the needle position.

ALT

The Alt button provides additional options depending on where you are in the menus.

That’s all pretty easy to understand as well. We’re doing good so far. Hopefully, you’re still following me.

Now we’ll get to the heart of what’s inside the Brilliance 75Q. Let’s look at the stitches and what we can do with them. This next photo is what the Color Touch Screen looks like when you first turn on the Brilliance 75Q – It’s ready to sew a straight stitch!

The default screen for the Brilliance 75Q

This screen provides the information for the default stitch A:1, which is a straight stitch. Well, what if we don’t want a straight stitch? Where do we go from here? The first thing to note is the Start Menu, the orange button in the top right-hand corner. When we open the Start Menu, we have several options.

The START menu on the right-hand side of the screen

Stitch Menu

The first option is the Stitch Menu. Remember those 19 menus of stitches in the User’s Guide? It’s easy to find any of those menus using the Stitch Menu on the Start Menu. The list on the left-hand side is the first section of the 19 Stitch Menus. Using the black arrow on the left will allow me to scroll through the menus. And if there are more than 12 stitches in a menu, use the Function Arrows on the black area surrounding the Touch Screen to see the Stitch Menu’s next section.

Selecting a Stitch Menu

There’s a Quilt Stitches menu, with the first one being the setting for a ¼” seam allowance. We’ll be working with that tomorrow.

Menu D – Quilt Stitches

Stitch Font Menu

The second button on the Start Menu is the Stitch Font Menu, which allows me to access the four built-in fonts.

The Stitch Font Menu

Program Mode

The third button is the Program button, which will take me to Program Mode. Here I can program any combination of stitches and fonts. I can play with the stitches by mirroring them end to end or side to side, change the size, etc. There’s a whole chapter in the User’s Guide on Programming.

Program Mode on the Brilliance 75Q

I can even add in a Fix, Stop or Cut command. My entire length of programmed stitches can be up to approximately 500 mm or 20″ long. Wow, that’s amazing! The sky’s the limit as to what I can program, and don’t forget that I can save the combinations I create.

Programming a machine function into the stitch sequence

While I’m programming, and once the stitch sequence is ready, I can see the stitches on the Color Touch Screen. You have to love that – no guesswork!

The programmed stitch sequence appears on the sewing mode screen

If I want to save that sequence of stitches/fonts, I can save it in the File Manager. Think about that – you’ve created a particular stitch – perhaps it’s as simple as you changed the width and length of a decorative stitch that you are using on a project. You won’t finish the project in one sewing session. You can save your stitch in a file. Call it a name you’ll easily remember, and it’s there! I have a project later this week where this is will be super handy.

The File Manager Menu on the Husqvarna Viking Brilliance 75Q sewing machine

Who knew we’d find all these fabulous features and stitches behind that Start Menu? The possibilities are huge!

Set Menu

The last button on the Start Menu is the Set Menu, and here we’ll find settings for sewing, stitch settings, and machine settings.

We can turn the settings for some of the functions on the Function Panel on or off. There are settings for using twin needles, stitch width safety, and a whole lot more. Be sure to sit down with the User’s Guide and go through the Set Menu. There are many valuable tools to personalize your sewing machine, and you may find that one day you want one feature on and the next day, with a new project, you want some of the features turned off. The best news? You get to choose!

One of the Set Menus

What’s even more impressive is that all of this information is easy to find on the screen and in the User’s Guide. So once again, if you sat in front of the sewing machine with the User’s Guide and pushed buttons, you’d soon know your way around the screens on the Brilliance 75Q.

There’s one more thing I want to share with you today so let’s go back to that first screen – the one that you see when you first turn on the Brilliance 75Q.

The Default Menu on the Brilliance 75Q

This screen gives you information about the stitch that’s currently selected. Remember, the Sewing Advisor sets the tension once you choose the weight and type of fabric, along with the technique. And you can override any of the settings if you prefer.

We also see the recommended presser foot, the needle and an image of the stitch. The red dot signifies where that stitch sequence will start – more on that later this week. It’s easy to change the stitch length and width by using the Up/Down and Sideways function arrows along the touch screen’s outer part.

But there are two other buttons on this screen. If I don’t remember what they are or why they are there – I can use Quick Help. Don’t forget the Quick Help.

One of them is the Stitch Restart (very useful for decorative stitches). The other is the Free Motion Technique, which brings up the three options for free-motion quilting – free motion floating, free motion spring, or free-motion ruler. That means you can use the Husqvarna Viking branded foot for ruler work – but more on that another day.

The Free Motion technique options

Oh my, that’s a whole lot of sewing machine! All these fantastic features and functions will make my life as a sewist so much easier. And it was super easy to run through by sitting at the sewing machine with the User’s Guide and playing with the buttons.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to start stitching! Should I quilt? Should I sew? Should I do decorative stitches? You’ll have to come back tomorrow to see what I’m going to start with on the Husqvarna Viking Brilliance 75Q. There’s so much I want to do and so little time!

Have a great day!

Ciao!

This is part 2 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 1: Let’s take a tour of the Husqvarna Viking Brilliance 75Q!

Go to part 3: Easily get the look of handwork stitches by machine!

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