I use whatever I have on hand for my embroidery machine. I got a great deal on thread from www.threadart.com. Good luck playing with your machine

Sometimes regular thread won't fill in a design as well as the heavier 40 wt embroidery thread.
Try different threads, and see which you like best :D:D:D

what kind of stabilizer works best?

i have the brother se-350 and i use regular thread on it to embroidery with it i just love my machine

Well learned something new again! I just went out and bought the entire pack of embrodiery thread! Did not know you could use reg thread, but that is ok, now I have lots of beautiful thread to choose from. My question is, what is the bottom thread? Why is it special?

Bottom line thread is much thinner and the bobbin holds a lot more there is less bulk if you are stitching out a close pattern.