Both of you received really good gifts. I own the Janome 300E myself. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT. Hindsight being what it is, I do wish I would have paid the extra bucks for the 350E, but I am still very happy with my purchase.
NAYY, but Nancy's notions has a couple of great items for machine embroidery beginners.
http://www.nancysnotions.com/product...ues+book+cd.do
Embroidery Machine Essentials is a fantastic book. Tons of good information. I don't embroider without it.
http://www.nancysnotions.com/product...n+guidebook.do
sort of a cliff notes to stablizers, a real must have.
The janome can read .jef or .sew formats. Regarding threads, you can use just about any thread you want to use. You need to pay attention to the density of your embroidery design. A design that is dense you should use a light weight thread. Less dense, you can use a heavier thread.
Watch it with using the old thread in your machine. Being old it will leave lots of lints through out the machine and breakage can be a real problem.
I would recommend using Schmetz Embroidery needles in the machine. The machines that the CLASS 15 bobbin.
Have fun with the machines, they are great!