Learning the Destiny IQ Designer

Before Christmas, Elizabeth was able to attend a two day class in Richmond at All Brands Sew and Vac on the IQ Designer portion of her Babylock Destiny sewing machine affectionately called “Super Baby”.  In February it will be two years since she traded in “Baby” for this machine!  The IQ Designer is where you can design your own embroidery from within the machine instead of doing it in a separate software program on the computer.  You can also edit the built-in designs and fonts easily in this area.  It is not as powerful as digitizing software on a computer but that isn’t really Elizabeth’s interest.  She is more interested in combining designs and in being able to create blocks which are quilted right in the hoop.

In the class we learned how to create a small quilted and zippered in-the-hoop bag where we “built” all the parts of the bag using the features within IQ.  First we built our appliqued tree by learning to use the shapes and sizing the triangle to create our tree. 

We copied the shape for the applique outline and then repeated it to sew down the fabric and create the satin stitched edging.  Next we learned how to create our embroidered package 

using the scanning feature of the machine where you can use line art to turn an image into an embroidery with either a fill design, a satin stitch design or a straight stitch.  This was very exciting as Elizabeth intends to turn some of our thermofax screen designs into embroidery patterns.  The idea of combining the screen printing and embroidery to make fabric with more depth is also a goal.  Combining repeats of decorative stitches and saving them to the machine’s memory was the goal of the zipper application.

We then learned how to use the built in stippling design to make a quilted backing 

and how to create the shapes to use for placement and to put all the pieces in order for the bag to sew out correctly.  

It was a very fun class and now she has the confidence to really delve into the fantastic things this sewing machine can help accomplish.