Jaba, they are so cute, I love them. And as far as thread goes, I get my thread on Thread art, right now they are having a special if you buy more than 20 you get them for $1.00, if not they are $1.95. I love the thread I get from them, it is a lot cheaper than the thread I get at the store, and at that price I can afford a lot of colors. Some one else told me their machine does not like it, but mine is fine with it. But you have to use stabilizer, and that is where it gets a little crazy expensive. But if you use the Dryer sheets of fabric softener AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN USED.... Very important to make sure they get all the fabric softener out of the sheet, for our dryer it is about two uses. We put two in each load of laundry one brand new one and one used one. I use them with a lighter weight stabilizer, or maybe 3 dryer sheets. Press them with a iron set to synthetic. It works great and really saves a lot of money. Hubby goes to the Laundry mat down the street about every other day to collect them too! If I use a big hoop I have to sew two together.
If you have any questions let me know maybe I can help. There is a thread on here about embroidery machines, I found it once but have not been able to get back there. My machine is a Viking Limited Edition, I bought it in 2007 and really just started using the embroidery part the last 3 months, the more I learn the better I get at making the blocks.