In your area you should have some machine dealers. Since your are starting out find one that has classes to go along with the machine. You can even find some beginner quilting classes from some LQS. My favorite things to quilt with are: 1/4in foot, needle up/down button, auto thread cut, auto tack stitch good lighting and auto threader can be great. If you are considering embroidery you might want to take into consideration the hoop size because that is where some of your limits will be at; some of them will only allow you to do a 4 x4 which is really small and if you don't plan on upgrading for quite sometime you might want to go at least one to 2 sizes bigger now. Try some different machines out; we all have our picks and what we like about them that makes them good for us.