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Top 10 reasons why I love the Designer Jade | 35

Top 10 reasons why I love the Designer Jade | 35

by Elaine Theriault

This week on QUILTsocial flew by exploring the many capabilities of the Husqvarna Viking Designer Jade | 35. To wrap it up, I’d love to share my top 10 reasons why I love this sewing machine. Can you guess what any of them might be? Let’s have a look.

Husqvarna Viking Designer Jade | 35

Husqvarna Viking Designer Jade | 35

Number 10 – the slide out storage tray

This is such an amazing design feature. I love the fact that the storage tray securely holds the power cord and the foot pedal. In addition, there’s room for a few sewing accessories. Slide that storage tray into the bed of the Jade | 35 and it doubles as the hard case. A brilliant and practical design.

Slide out storage tray

Slide out storage tray

Number 9 – room to sew

There’s enough room to the left and the front of the needle to be able to sew without adding an extension table. This from me who always sews with an extension table on my other sewing machines. Not once did I feel like my project was falling off the edges and I sewed some big projects on the Designer Jade | 35.

Plenty of room to the left and in front of the needle for sewing

Plenty of room to the left and in front of the needle for sewing

Number 8 – Exclusive Sewing Advisor

Once you have access to this feature, you won’t want to sew without it. This is especially true if you experiment with different types of fabrics and sewing techniques. Choose your fabric type/weight, choose the technique and let the Exclusive Sewing Advisor select the stitch and the appropriate settings like stitch length, presser foot, and tension among other settings.

Exclusive Sewing Advisor

Exclusive Sewing Advisor

Number 7 – 1/4″ marking on the throat plate

If you’ve been following my reviews, you know that I LOVE that Quilter’s 1/4″ Piecing Foot. Combine that foot with the 1/4″ marking on the throat plate and it’s a perfect combination to sew that scant 1/4″ seam.

1/4" marking on the throat plate

1/4″ marking on the throat plate

Number 6 – the needle threader

I’m a bit old school on this feature because I thread the needle without the needle threader – usually because I struggle with the darn things and my eye sight is still good enough. However I’m happy to report that this needle threader worked, first time, every time! Perhaps practice makes perfect? Anyway – I did use it a lot and it’s very handy!

Needle threader

Needle threader

Number 5 – BEAUTIFUL stitches

The stitches on the Jade | 35 were so beautifully formed, it seemed a shame to put them on the inside of the project where they wouldn’t be seen. But that is the point. Because the tension was perfect and the stitches so nicely formed, you could NOT see them from the right side and in quilting, that’s very important.

One thing to note, I like to use a stitch length of 2.0. On most machines, I have to drop the stitch length down to 2.0, but the default on the Jade | 35 is 2.0. Nice!

Beautiful stitches

Beautiful stitches

Number 4 – great functions!

OK – I’m cheating a bit because I’m combining a few things together! The Jade | 35 has a needle down function. If you’re going to do applique, chain piecing, free motion quilting and many other tasks – needle down is critical!

The STOP function is essential for machine applique to end the stitching at the end of a stitch sequence among other tasks.

The FIX function ties a knot at the beginning and end of your row of stitching. Again – this is a fabulous feature for applique and decorative stitching.

When people ask me what I look for in a sewing machine – the first thing I say is ‘what functions does it have for applique?’ This is very important even if you do just a small amount of applique. If you have the right tools, it makes the job so much easier and the results look nicer.

Ah – you noticed that I didn’t mention the scissors! They’re handy, but again, the old school in me just doesn’t use them. However that feature is handy for the embroidery part where the thread is cut automatically after you finished a thread color or the embroidery is completely stitched.

Needle stop up/down, STOP, FIX and Scissors function buttons

Needle stop up/down, STOP, FIX and Scissors function buttons

Number 3 – great variety of stitches

While it’s nice to have lots and lots of different stitches, sometimes it can be overwhelming. The number of stitches on the Jade | 35 is just right. There’s enough variety within each of the four menus that you’ll be busy exploring for a very long time.

Stitch Menus 1 and 3

Stitch Menus 1 and 3

Stitch Menus 2 and 4

Stitch Menus 2 and 4

Number 2 – flexibility to modify stitches

The flexibility to modify stitches is amazing. You can change the width and the length. You can also mirror the stitches from end to end or side to side. That flexibility just increased (by a lot), the number of options for the stitches.

Stitches mirrored side to side

Stitches mirrored side to side

Stitch width has been modified

Stitch width has been modified

Number 1 – embroidery capabilities

As an entry level embroidery machine, the Designer Jade | 35 certainly provides a lot of options and a lot of flexibility in what you can embroider. Let’s just say that I was very pleasantly surprised by what it can do.

Husqvarna Viking Designer Jade | 35 with embroidery unit

Husqvarna Viking Designer Jade | 35 with embroidery unit

And there you have it – the top 10 reasons why I love the Husqvarna Viking Designer Jade | 35. There were a lot of surprises on this entry level embroidery machine and it was a very pleasant experience to sew and embroidery on the Jade | 35.

Who should buy this machine? If I were looking for a great (full feature) sewing machine, and also wanted to dabble in machine embroidery – this is an excellent (and well priced) sewing/embroidery machine. No need for an embroidery machine with all the bells and whistles if you’ll only be doing the occasional embroidery project. You get good functionality on the Jade | 35 and it sews a fabulous stitch for your quilting/sewing projects.

That was a very fun week. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you learned a tip or two in the process of reviewing it. Don’t forget to let us know how you love your Jade | 35 and post pictures of any projects that you’re working on on our Facebook page: QUILTsocial .

Have a great day! Ciao!

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11 comments

Tanya Tonnu June 18, 2022 - 9:54 am

Hello, I am looking for Designer Jade 35 Embroidery unit and Hasqvarna Viking don’t have. Does anyone have one extra that I can buy? Thank you. Tanya
My email address is [email protected]

Reply
Linda Baker January 21, 2018 - 8:23 pm

I find the designer of this machine did not consider lefthanders. It is very difficult to use the left hand as there is little space on the left side to use any screw driver or change the foot

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kate February 19, 2016 - 8:51 am

I’m looking at this machine and the Pfaff creative 1.5, I mainly quilt. Do you like one above the other?

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Carla A. Canonico February 19, 2016 - 10:42 am

This is hard to answer as they’re both great sewing machines!! Sewing machines are very personal, what I love may not be comfortable for others to sew with. What’s important is to test drive them at your dealer. Do your homework and get to know the features of each one. Then decide which one feels best for you and what features interest you most for the kind of quilting you can’t live without. Enjoy the experience!

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LaTricia February 10, 2016 - 10:04 pm

Awesome review. Thank you so much. I was searching the internet looking for tutorials and reviews for the Jade 35 and came across your blog posts. I’ve learned so much. My husband bought me the Jade 35 yesterday. I took it out of the box today and I’m looking forward to learning how to use it. Your posts make it seem less intimidating.

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Alice January 23, 2016 - 1:36 am

Great review! This looks like a fun little machine & I’ve thought of getting one for my daughter. (I already have a Designer Deluxe & love it). I really like the idea of the foot pedal storage.

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Elaine Theriault January 27, 2016 - 12:53 pm

Alice – thanks – yes the design is awesome and definitely a great machine. Let us know what happens. Elaine

Reply
Carol Kennedy January 22, 2016 - 5:59 pm

I like the Inspira stablilizers, my projects always come put looking great.

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VickiT January 22, 2016 - 2:43 pm

I found your blog awhile back while you were reviewing the Ruby Royale. I read every single post done about that machine as I was considering a new machine and that was a great special at the time at my local dealer. Your reviews of machines are extremely thorough and very detailed. I did end up buying the Ruby Royale and had so much knowledge already from reading all your blog posts about the machine so thank you for that. I’ve been hoping you would do a review on the new Jade because that machine came out the day I was attending my very first class to learn my new machine. I wanted to know more about it because it is such a great price and I’m amazed at how much they’ve put into that machine. Very impressed they allowed that one to do larger than just the 4×4 hoop size. That alone was impressive since most lower priced embroidery machines don’t give more than the 4×4 size. And again you have done a great review of that machine also.

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Carla A. Canonico January 22, 2016 - 7:27 pm

Hi Vicki, I’m so very pleased you’re enjoying QUILTsocial, so glad we were of service! Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Reply
Margaret Smith January 22, 2016 - 2:20 pm

Wonderful site. I love the crazy quilt. Have been using the Inspira needles and stabilizers and they are wonderful.

Reply

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