gjp424

Hi Maria, Thanks. I really would prefer to buy from a dealer. I think I would want the support and the classes. I don't want to spend over $1,000 but would be interested in a good basic embroidery only machine that I won't out grow in a year.
G.

mpspeedy

Hi, I am one of the persons who prefers a stand alone embroidery machine. The reason being I can use it at the same time I am working on my other sewing machines. There are lots of embroidery machines out there. Choose one that fits your needs. Mine is the second model Bernina came out with. I had their first one a Deco 350. It only does a 4 inch motif but that is larger than you think. It uses the PES format. I traded that up to my Bernina dealer for a Deco 650 that does a few more things but uses the same format. Almost any brand of stand alone embroidery machine seems to use PES. Whatever you end up with you will also end up investing a lot of money in software patterns. You can join clubs like Martha Pullen's embroidery club and download about 40 patterns or so for $49 a year. I used to belong to that but lately more and more of the patterns are more than 4 inches. In order to use downloaded patterns you will have to invest in a magic box that converts any downloaded or pattern on CD to a format your machine can use. If I were you I would purchase either a used one from a dealer or an inexpensive one from Walmart etc. You may discover that it is something you either love or really don't want to do. The machine is just the beginning. I have literally thousands of dollars tied up in design cards, downloads and a magic box. Then there are the stabilizers, extra hoops, etc. etc. and don't forget thread.
I have made several quilts that included a good bit of embroidery, I have made lots of gifts using it and am presently committed to doing a lot of embroidery on a 250th anniversary quilt for my church. While I have spent a lot of money over the years it has been over a 20 year period that I spent that money.
Go on sites like Martha Pullen, Nancy's Notions and google machine embroidery. You may decide that there are things out there that you truly want to do with machine embroidery. It can be as addicting as quilting.

gjp424

Thank you for all your info. I will keep it all in mind when I actually start looking. My current sewing machine is a bernina and I love it so I was gravitating to the bernina. My bernina dealer does not sell the stand alone embroidery machine. I am buying a newer bernina, I should say my wonderful husband is buying it for me, and have decided on the bernina 440QE. My bernina dealer does not sell the stand alone embroidery machine so they are trying to talk me into the embroidery option on the 440QE. The second dealer in my area no longer sells bernina's. They have gone to the Janome 350E. He also didn't have any, they were on order, for me to try. He said it was equivelant to the bernina embroidery machine. I would really like to try them both before making a decision. I didn't think this would be so hard. I am glad to hear you also prefer the stand alone, I was beginning to think it wasn't such a great idea. Quilting is my first passion but I really think I would enjoy the embroidery since I now have young grandchildren.
G.