Robert's at work right now, but he told me to tell everyone thanks! :)
He bought the embroidery machine for me for my birthday back in May. It's a Brother SE-400 from Walmart, less than $400. We both LOVE it! :mrgreen: (I think he just wanted my birthday present! ha ha) The only downside is that it can only do 4" square or smaller patterns, but since we mostly use the embroidery for quilt blocks, we haven't felt too limited. Love the computer (USB) connection! That was one of the main things I wanted. The machine can do regular sewing as well, and has oodles of different stitches.
I ordered a bunch of embroidery thread and some stabilizer from ThreadArt, and have had very few problems with puckering. The stabilizer says "regular tearaway", and it came in a package of 8x8" precut pieces. Very handy, and not terribly expensive. :) We've found that we also can use a coffee filter (or two stacked up), and they work well.