[QUOTE=DebbieKT; You all repeated many of the pointers the shop owner had mentioned, and since you had no financial gain from your recomendations he listened! Janome 350 here we come![/QUOTE]
I'm glad we could help you out Debbie. It is hard for someone who doesn't use the machines to even think of what all you can do with them and how things like the hoop size and USB/internet connection can make such a big difference. Now you can start having fun collecting designs. Check with your machine because even though mine is a Viking and I normally use VP3 it'll see all designs formats so that really helps. I started out downloading hus formats and then seen a difference in the way they showed up on the screen. I contacted emblibrary.com and they said that hus has limited colors and that's why. VIP and VP3 are the closest to what they use for their designs. If you can always download the colorsheet because that'll really help you out. My dealer/teacher gave me great advice. Most sites will let you re-download your designs more than one time but if they upgrade/change their sites your design might be in the archives and if you don't see it or don't know the name or might forget what site you got it from you'll lose out. I have a separate section that I download all of my orders to and put them into folders. I name my folders orders_companyname. Then I leave a copy of the design in the folder and if it's zipped I leave the zipped folder in it. I have a folder for each company. Then I unzip the files and rename them to make since to me and move them into folders to show what they are; animals, home decor, holidays w/sub folders of the different holidays, etc. This has really helped. I just bought software where I can now start modifying and making designs so I now have folders like JudysDesigns, JudysMonograms, etc. I hope this helps. I'm learning so much here lately as I'm really trying to make sure my embroidery doesn't take a back seat to my sewing. Right now I'm making cutwork tablerunners using the cutwork needles and I'm also making my daughter a mesh beach bag w/applique and embroideried designs on it.
Here are a few sites that I really like. One is Hatched in Africa, I just went to their trunk show and they have great designs that aren't densily stitched. I also like emblibrary.com and my Viking library and I've been googleing a few others but since I haven't stitched out their designs I won't comment on them. Good luck with your new baby.