Beeboop71; Do you have any of the sew n vac places up there. I know that here they have a monthly club and everyone is invited to join and you can learn alot from them. My Viking dealer says everyone is welcome to her monthly classes. It's 40 for the year if you didn't buy machine from them plus monthly supplies for what we are making. I hope you can find someone to help you. I love doing embroidery and do a lot of looking online at sites tutorials and projects which I learn a lot about. Florani and Viking (Pfaff) have printable files on stabilizers and such. Every month Pfaff and Viking give a free design. Most of the time it's the same one for both machines but sometimes it's different and they also have instructions for making a project w/that design. I check them both out so when they are different I can download them both. I can use any design on my machine but the Pfaff also uses the vp3 that I use for my Ruby. Have you tried other shops other than Pfaff dealers; some of them may offer help. I'm currently working on the tutorials that come in the modules of my software for my machine so I don't know it you have them or not. I really wish you luck. Once you start doing the embroidery you'll love it. I was also happy when I saw the email from Viking about the software for MAC users. I don't have a MAC but have seen where alot do and they need software too. If I can help in any way just let me know and I'll try to answer any questions you have. Also check out Florani when they are doing classes; I'm going to one this month; it cost 30 and I get 599 in free things. I've heard they teach alot about embroidery in general. I also plan on going to a weekend embroidery in Richmond VA in October. It's for 2 days, they supply everything including use of a Brother machine and lots of free designs. They have lots of experienced teachers there so you can ask lots of questions. Even though they don't use your machine you might be able to get enough from the two classes that will give you more confidence in using yours. Just google classes in your area.