I bought mine 8 years ago and have never used it to it's full potential. Shortly after that I bought the Janome MC 6500 for the larger harp so I use the Designer 1 only for the embroidery. This is a real waste of money because the Designer cost almost $6,000 at that time. I've kicked myself ever since for not just buying an excellent embroidery only machine. The only problem I have had with the embroidery unit is that a gear slipped off and caused a terrible bird's nest jumble so into the shop it went. It was still under warrently so no cost to me. It really does a great job embroidering, especially the designs from emblibrary .com. If you are also going to get the hoop that allows you to quilt you will have to have an adjustment to accomodate that hoop. I think I paid $35 for that. Make sure you get the dongle that goes with the embroidery unit!!! Keep in mind that this machine uses floppy disks which is pretty much stone age technology.