Here is my 2 cents worth,I started out with a used Bernia Deco 500 wich hubby surprised me with for Christmas many years ago and yes you will need thread made for machine emb.,stabilizer and LOTS of patience to learn how to machine emb.but is definatly worth it...I have since bought a singer Futra which will emb. a slightly smaller than a 5 x 6 feild ,though has it's draw backs as you can purchuse for around less than 300.00 but you have to be connected to computor to machine emb.,Hubby bought me a Brother Disney machine last year and I love it,Though this past Christmas was embroidering fleece throws for gift exchange and Disney Locked up and had to take to get repaired ( it was thankfully under warentty )so I used Singer machine and got
gifts completed.You can purchuse a software program that organizes your designs called Ann The Gran ( I highly recommend )and with Singer can use to download design to machine .If I can help Please PM me.I love my embroidery
machines and there are soo many things you can make with them....not only quilts but paperdolls,fingerpuppets,tatted lace,bookmarks,puzzles,games and the list goes on....