My machine does 4 x 4 designs. For my purposes it works out great. I have done designs on hand towels, baby clothes, quilt blocks, napkins and more.
To have one of the more expensive machines that really do a lot more such as larger size designs but even more important to me would be you can stop and come back to the machine another day and pick right up where you stopped the day before to finish your design!! I would LOVE to have that feature. Also a more expensive machine you can see the design you are doing in larger size right on the screen and in color. Mine does not do that either. But that all being said what I have has worked out fine for the projects I do.
I highly recommend this book on learning all about machine embroidery entitled "Machine Embroidery With Confidence" A Beginners Guide by Nancy Zieman.
http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Embroi...ine+embroidery
I actually received the book by mistake from a book club and after looking thru it and then reading it I knew I wanted an embroidery machine!!! I ordered my machine two weeks later. The rest is history!
