Hi Hr,
I'm pretty knew to all this but this is what I'm looking at. My criteria pretty much matches yours in price range and my needs since it's just for home use. I've been reading all the reviews on it and it looks pretty good to me, but then what do I know? I'm sure there are some ladies here that have used this machine that can give you the pros and cons of it. Good luck!
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-PE770-...=brother+pe770