I bought my brother machine from Amazon in the 4 years I have had it it has been a dream machine. I was doing embroidery within an hour of setting it up. Very user friendly I would look at embroidery.com or Artistic thread works
http://www.artisticthreadworks.com/ for info on what to do regarding stableizers I usually use a tear away or an iron on if it is stretchy fabric. My Brother machine will use all kinds of thread I use what I have in the color I need. I like bottom line thread for the bobbin it is thinner and goes farther.