Yes, you are limited with just a 4 x 4 hoop. There are so many wonderful designs out there but a lot of them require a larger hoop. I would try to go for a bigger machine if it is possible for you. The machine embroidery is so much neater too. I have done the machine embroidery with a blanket stitch on my machine but it is more time consuming and I don't do as neat of a job. I started out with a smaller machine and kept moving up until I finally bought a 10 needle embroidery machine. I still have a sewing/embroidery machine but it doesn't get used much.