Hi, I have been a Bernina person myself ever since I worked for a dealer for a little more than a year. Her shop survived by doing custom dressmaking and alterations. I not only learned a lot about garment sewing but I was able to get the employee discount on my then Bernina 1260. It was a wonderful machine. I used it hard and long for a good 20 years. Recently I traded it in for a used Bernina Artista 185. It can have the embroidery module but I choose not to get that feature. My first Bernina purchase was a Deco embroidery machine. It was the first one Bernina sold and was based on a Brother patent. I have had it going on 23 years and I love it. It is a stand alone machine that only does embroidery. If you have one of the combination machines you can only do one or the other at the same time. With the two seperate machines I can have something running on the embroidery machine while I am sewing on the other. The stand alone embroidery machine has a button you push to start and stop it. While it is running you can do other things. Since I didn't get the embroidery module additon for my 185 I don't know if you have to power the embroidery module by holding down the foot pedal. I would not like that at all. IN the last year or so I purchased another embroidery machine. This one is made by Brother but it uses the same software as my older Bernina Deco. I have at least $2000+ tied up in patterns to embroider for my Bernina embroidery machine. When it started showing signs of a long useful life I purchased a Brother embroidery machine since they use the same patent and sortware. I am not happy with the way the newer machine loads the item to be embroidered but that is the way all of the newer machines are. I am lucky enough to have the room to keep set up both of my embroidery machines, my sewing machine and my serger. I can reach all of them just by revolving my chair. My set up allows me to embroider, serge and sew on the same item without getting out of my seat.