aother good site for embroidery designs is...
www.emblibrary.com I use them all the time and love them. They have free designs monthly and are very low cost. i have never had a problem with them.

I have a Pfaff 2140 Embroidery machine that I've had for over 8 years now. I like the embroidery but I now fear that it was just a phase for me. I have tons of designs, but I don't do much embroidery any more. Just the odd kids thing and maybe a quilt label. At Christmas I did do 12 redwork squares last month for the 12 days of Christmas. I loved doing the patches, but I still don't have the wall hanging finished. It will get done for next year.

I have a Janome 11000SE that I use for embroidery work and a Janome 6600 I use for general sewing. I know my 1100o can also do general sewing, but using them the way I do, I can multi task and sew on one and embroider on the other!

whats a latte quilt? please

I have the singer futura 150. I enjoy embroidering on it, but with the problems I have had wouldn't recomend it for purchase. The bobbin case is so difficult to get in right after cleaning. I have had fits trying to get it correct, had to have help twice (luckily my sil has experience with a brother machine but she lives over 2 hours away). I did kitchen towels for friends this year, pillow cases for grand kids, bath towels for my house. I have had fun.

I have the Bernina Deco (13 Yrs) and am now using a Babylock Ellegante 2 (2 yrs). The internet is such a great resource for designs, both free and $$. I have made several quilts using the embroidery; just love it. My next quilt with embroidery will be quilt as you go.

Wow, the embroidery library really makes me want to get an EM! However, cost is a big factor right now.

I've looked at the Brother machines, affordable, but is the embroidery really nice looking? I'm afraid to pay good money and get a machine that doesn't make a nice quality embroidery design.

I would really only be using the EM for a few projects a year, not as a constant need, so if anyone can suggest a nice machine under $500, I'd love to hear about it.

Diane

I love my Brother SE350 it stitches beautifully and was under $400.00 I did get the PED Basic also for downloading off the internet'

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?ur...hine&x=12&y=19

The brothers that I have do amazing work, one is older and is about what you can get for under 500 now but it still does the job, just watch what hoop sizes you get and can do with it, the smaller ones can be very limiting. you may be surprised at howw much you end up using it.

On the Brother machines, what model has the largest hoop size? I'm now thinking, I would like to be sure I have one that can do a decent job of filling the space inside a 12" block for my quilts, so maybe one that has a hoope of about 8x8? Do they make those or am I getting into an expensive machine to do that?

Diane