[bright music]
[upbeat music]
- Hello, my name is Donna Bularz.
And many of you probably know me
from Bigsby's Sewing Center in Elm Grove, Wisconsin.
Bigsby's is a full-service BERNINA dealership,
right in the heart of downtown.
Today from Quilt Expo, I want to introduce you
to the newest family member from BERNINA.
And right here she is, she is BERNINA's Q16.
So we have the Q16,
the Q20, and the Q24.
We have 16 inches here of quilting space, and you can see,
I have a lot of LED lighting
so I can see what I'm stitching.
I have a lot of extra lighting right at the needle.
So I'm really excited to show you this new machine,
and it is available here at Quilt Expo.
All you have to do is give us a jingle
and we will give you some extra special show pricing.
So for now, I just want you to relax,
and we're gonna talk about the different features of the Q16.
You can see it is mounted into the foldable table.
Now, BERNINA has come out
with a new adjustable foldable table,
and this one currently is set at the middle setting.
It can be set at 28 inches, 30 inches, or 32 inches.
It is the same table that the Q20 can sit in.
They've added a little spacer at the back,
so it just sits a little bit forward.
It folds up and can be put away.
If you want to lift the machine out,
it can come out and it can be put away.
Or if you're traveling and you have a home down South
for the winter and you wanna take it with you,
it's a really nice travel companion.
Also with 16 inches,
that means we have a little bit of a lower price point.
So I know everyone is really excited to hear about that.
And we're going to continue on with this demonstration.
And I'm going to show you the fun of the machine.
I'm also going to talk about the different feet that come
with the other, that are available for the Q16.
All of the feet for the Q16, the Q20,
and the Q24 are interchangeable
with the regular sewing machines.
So everything with BERNINA is interchangeable,
and that's really great.
So stay with me, and we are going to switch now
to a different view of the machine.
Okay, this is Donna back at Bigsby's Sewing Center.
And you can see that we are now sitting
in the front of the Q16,
and the screen is identical to the Q20 and the Q24.
I wanna show you a few of the features of this machine,
because if you don't have a longarm,
these features make all the difference in the world.
Number one, this is a regular sewing machine needle.
BERNINA is the only longarm that can use
a standard sewing machine needle.
It's such a precision-built machine
that it can withstand, and the good news is,
is you can use all different kinds of needles.
You can use a ballpoint needle, topstitch, leather, jean.
This machine can quilt through just about anything.
So that is number one for me.
Number two, it has the two stitch regulators
built right into the stitch plate.
You can see there's one on both sides of that needle.
So that means no matter what direction you are quilting,
you are going to get perfectly regulated stitches
every time, I love that feature.
Another great feature of this machine is
all of the threading is at the front
so I don't have to get up, I don't have to go
to the back of the machine and come to the front.
It's all a very simple thread path
coming right down to a needle threader.
How fabulous is that?
So those are big differences
when you are considering buying a longarm.
BERNINA now has the 16-inch.
If you've been following BERNINA for a while,
you'll know that there are two other sizes,
the Q20 and the Q24, as I mentioned.
All of the accessories that BERNINA makes
are interchangeable between all three machines.
So when you look at the front of the screen,
I'm just going to go over a few of the icons with you
so that you know some of the great features
that you're getting.
First of all, upper thread tension.
It's all adjusted automatically.
So you never have to turn a dial and wonder where you are.
Did I increase, decrease?
It's a simple tap of the screen,
and you can say I want less or more.
I rarely have to change my upper thread tension.
If I'm running a specialty thread,
perhaps I need to occasionally, but for the most part,
I just leave it set right where it comes.
I can raise or lower my presser foot
simply by tapping on the screen.
I have the ability to program
different settings for this machine.
So perhaps I have a particular thread I like,
or a technique that I like.
I can save those settings so that when I turn
my machine back on,
I can come right back to those settings
without having to remember what they were.
I have a bobbin minder, so I can tell the bobbin,
I can tell how much that I've wound on my bobbin.
And when it gets down to under 25%,
that little minder is going to start flashing red at me.
And it's up to me if I wanna take a walk on the wild side
and see if I'm gonna run out of bobbin thread or not.
So you have complete control of that.
When the machine is turned on and you are in stitching mode,
this little BSR light is going to shine green.
And that's just your indication that the machine is on
and going to stitch if you move the fabric.
I have the ability to stop in the needle up
or needle down position; right now,
you can see the machine is indicating
that it will stop in the needle down position
when I take my foot off the gas pedal.
BERNINA does have three different BERNINA
stitch regulator modes.
I have BSR mode one,
which is what the machine will turn on automatically to.
And right now the machine is set to do 10 stitches per inch.
If I'd like a tighter look, I can increase that number
and get more stitches per inch.
If I like a more organic or loose look,
I can decrease the number of stitches per inch.
I also have the ability to set the idling speed.
And an idling speed means that the needle continues
to go up and down even if you come to a stop
with moving your fabric,
the needle will continue to go up and down.
And that's really something you wanna have happen
when you have sharp points.
You want them to be defined and sharp.
So BSR mode one is your friend for most everything.
BSR mode number two gives you one option,
and that is your stitches per inch, SPI.
And it always defaults to 10.
And so that is really great for someone who is quilting
and isn't quite sure where they're going to go next.
And when you hesitate,
that machine is going to stop and wait.
So if you come to a complete stop with your needle,
with your stitching, your fabric,
that needle is going to stop and wait for you
to begin moving again before it starts stitching.
So that also is very helpful.
Everyone seems to have their preference.
You either love one or the other.
I do believe that there are good uses for both.
Then I have BSR mode number three,
which is actually a basting mode.
It's going to default to two stitches per inch.
So if you need to baste your quilt before you start quilting,
this is where you're going to go for that.
And some of you really like
that little tiny micro stippling,
really, you know who you are, you know what I'm talking about.
You can go into manual mode
and that is no stitch regulation.
So that needle is going up and down really fast.
And you can do your little micro stippling
and whatever you need to do in the manual mode.
So those are the four different kinds of stitch regulation.
The machine also on the bottom has the ability to stitch
without having your foot on the gas pedal.
So right now, if I tap the back side of my,
the back end of my foot pedal,
I am going to bring my needle up.
So you can see, one tap brought my needle up.
And I have a picture of a knot here.
So if I were to hold my heel in, it will tie a knot for me.
If I would like to now stitch
without having to keep my foot on the gas pedal,
I can simply touch the start button.
And it's indicating that if I just tap my heel
on the back side of the foot pedal,
the machine will start stitching.
So now I do not have my foot on the gas.
[sewing machine running]
To stop, I simply hit the exit button.
Good tip and trick I'm going to give you on ruler work is
you must have that ruler tight up against the foot
before you begin stitching, you cannot have it out here.
You're gonna run the risk of actually stitching on the ruler
because you just don't have control of what you're doing.
You need to have a few fingers on the ruler,
a few fingers on the fabric,
and we're just gonna start stitching.
And I'm gonna start moving.
[sewing machine running]
All of these accessories that I am showing you
are available at Quilt Expo, and we have excellent sales
and show special pricing for you.
If you visited our booth before
and you've been thinking about a longarm,
you know that at Expo is the absolute best time
to make a purchase of a longarm.
And this little baby is going to be a very hot commodity.
It's a little bit smaller.
That means the price tag is a little bit smaller.
And for those of you who've been waiting for this,
it is here.
Next, we're going to actually go take a look at the Q24,
and I'm going to show you a design that I have stitched out.
And then we're gonna show a little bit of couching.
And couching can be done with this machine,
with the Q20 and the Q24, and it can be done free-motion.
Welcome back.
We are now standing at the Q24, 24 stands for 24 inches.
And I have it mounted onto a 13-foot frame.
And I also have Q-matic or automation
added to this machine.
So that means that I can do
free-motion quilting if I choose.
Or as in the example of this design
I'm going to point out to you,
I can have the computer and the motors on the machine
stitch it out for me.
You can see the automation is taking over
the screen now of my machine.
It's asking me if I would like to pull up my bobbin thread
or tie a knot; in this case,
I'm just gonna continue on stitching
because I've already started it for you.
And here we go.
[sewing machine running]
You are looking at BERNINA's Q-matic.
So this can be added to a longarm at any time,
as long as you have it on the frame.
I've pulled up a pantograph.
So this is, there's over 600 designs built into Q-matic
because I also have Art and Stitch built in here.
So I could make my own designs or modify designs.
But for today, I'm just going to use this included design.
And I'm going to show you how to do a pantograph.
It's very easy, or an edge-to-edge.
I can simply multiply the design as many times as I need
in order to get the width that I need.
I can then tell the machine how many rows
that I need of that.
Like so, and I can control the spacing.
And there I have created an edge-to-edge design.
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