I love my embroidery machine and I don't care if I do have to change the thread colors a lot, it beats buying the 10 or more thread machines. I feel I have control on my machine. If it is something that takes a lot of mins, then I can sew on the other machine, but some times it is 1 or 2 mins and then you change colors. Sometimes if I don't like the color I used I will go over that part with another color. I have another sewing machine in the room and that is why I can do that.
I normally only use my 8 x 8 or 8 x 12 hoops for most everything I do. When I do embroidery, for my tote bags I add more than one design on it. So most of the time I go with the biggest hoop.