I have several Brother embroidery machines and love them, but wouldn't consider the cheaper ones simply because of the limited hoop sizes. I use the hoop-it-all with mine, for a 12" embroidery area without rehooping, much easier than a 4" hoop. Depending on how much embroidery you're interested in doing, think about a later model in a used machine if price is a factor. There are many of the 'smaller' machines for sale due to owners upgrading - and price-wise, like cars, their value drops. If you don't plan on using it much the little Bro's are well thought of, I just wouldn't get anything less than a 5x7 hoop though

PatPitter - my youngest machine is 6 yrs old, and I can use any brand usb. If your machine uses embroidery cards I don't think any other brands make the same size, and you need a Brother reader/writer, also blank Bro cards are too expensive anyway.

My thumb drive is a 4 GB SanDisk, I bought from WalMart.

I would recommend finding a dealer near you that gives lessons. Machine embroidery is a whole different ball game. IMHO the dealer is much more important than the brand. I agree with looking for trade-in machines at a dealer. I have traded up 3 times since I started embroidery about 4 years ago. It is an addictive (and not cheap) hobby, but it is so much fun. Hope you find what you want

I thought it would be weird to require a particular brand of USB.

I have the PE770 too and I like it a lot. I bought mine from Amazon. I was worried about buying a machine like that online but it was perfectly adjusted and ready to stitch right out of the box. I've had no troubles with it at all. It can handle larger hoops but I mostly use the 5x7.

The USB stick I use in my machine is a cheap unbranded one that I got for free as shwag from a vendor at a work event, works just fine!

I do think classes would be valuable - I read a lot online but I still screw up and use the wrong stabilizer, etc. I kind of have to fumble around a bit before I get it right sometimes, which wastes materials. I could probably find local classes to take - I might look into that after the holiday and year-end chaos subsides.

My husband bought a refurbished ("little") Brother SE270D for me one year, 4 inch hoop and pre-loaded with Disney designs. I never used it much for embroidery, but it was my "daily driver" for about 6-7 years until I bought my ("big") Brother 1500. That little 270 is awesome, even though it's a lower-end machine. I still pull it out every now and then for button holes or when I need a decorative stitch.

I *think* the 270 is the predecessor of the 770.

I got the Brother PE770 last year for Christmas and I really like it.

I have an expensive Baby Lock (which I LOVE) but it is so old (about 15 years old ), it has to be used with a floppy disk to bring in designs. So last year, I bought the Brother PE770 just so I could use a flash drive to transfer designs - and I LOVE it also. I only go back to my Baby Lock when I need a design bigger than the 5X7 that you can do on the Brother. You should be very happy with the PE770, Irishgal - but I would caution you about getting a machine that only does 4X4 designs. Machine embroidery is addictive, and soon you will be wanting to do bigger designs than that! :D

I have a friend who does commercial embroidery and she uses Brother machines all the time with no more problems than any others. I would want the ability to use larger hoops than the four inch ones however.

I have the PE-770. I refused to buy one until I could afford the one with the larger hoop. I didn't want to be limited to just 4x4 designs. If you really, really like embroidery, you might want to wait and get the PE-770 which also uses the 5x7 hoop.