Welcome to the board. I bought a Viking #1 last year because I wanted to get into embroidery as well. I haven't been able to yet because it had issues. The machine is at the repair shop and was lucky enough to have them find a used part that it needed; used one is 30 new one was 147; big difference. I've been downloading all of the free designs from embroidery lib. This site is a wealth of information, lessons and inspirations