Originally Posted by
jquilts190
I have decided to get an embroidery only machine, but it seems the choices are very limited. The Babylock spirit and Brother dreammaker are not available in Canada. The feature that really interested me was the positioning pen. Just curious if people really use it. The only other reasonable option is the Janome 500e. For those that have this machine, do you have trouble with hooping. I have a 4 x 4 now, and have my system, but I think a larger area will show mistakes in alignment more.
My Viking has the largest hoop out there and I have just about everyone for my machine. I rarely use the 4x4 and have no problems hooping. Have you tried the Brother 3500, its a q series, it does Disney which is what I wanted and it has the positioning pen as well. It also has self setting tension (which my viking has as well) and I wouldn't trade this feature for anything. I won a stand alone Brother and traded it for the 3500.