I have a Brother HE 240, which is essentially the same machine. I really like the way it sews and embroiders, and it is easy to use. The built-in embroidery motifs are quite limited, but I usually use patterns downloaded from embroidery library or bunnycup and have always been happy with the way they sew out. It can use an embroidery card, but I've never used one. I have built up quite a library of downloaded patterns stored on my computer (and backed up to a flash drive). One draw-back is that you are limited to patterns no larger than 4x4 inch.