Please tell me more about this, I looked at the websited for a minute, I have to leave. What does the basic do?
would the embird work with a viking iris that i have now

Where do you purchase your designs

How easy is it to get going

It was very simple. it comes with a quick start guide that gives instructions and pics step by step. had it unpacked, set up and practicing in less than an hour. and the instructions on transferring a design from your computer were very simple.

I prefer a stand alone emboidery machine and at this point have two. My first is a Bernina 650. The other I just recently purchased and it is a Brother PE780D. Both have built in designs and use the PES format. I had the Bernina for at least 20 years and purchased the Brother because it could use the same software and that particular model includes Disney designs and can use a design card or a USB stick. The Brother is probably twice as fast. Ironically the Bernina was a Brother patent. I am sure the Brother machine was less than $1000. It also can sew out a 5"x7" design where as my older Bernina can only do a 4"x4" motif. The few times I have wanted something digitized I have gone to my local Bernina dealer and had them do it for me. It saved me from purchasing a bunch of additional equipment that I would rarely if ever use. I just paid them for their time. I like the USB stick option as it allows me to download designs from sites on my computer, load them on a USB stick and sew them out on the Brother machine.

I purchase designs mostly from The Embroidery Library, here:
http://www.emblibrary.com/

my old brother accepts designs from the computer, but i have to use a box that has a memory card in it. you might try a used machine.

This is probably one stupid question but I must ask anyways.

If you have an embroidery machine can you just sew with it like you do on a normal sewing machine?
I want an embroidery machine so bad but It has to let me sew just like a normal machine.

Mine both sews and embroiders, has 100 different stitches/buttonholes---including some quilting stitches.
I use it as a dedicated embroidery machine. I've only had the embroidery bed off once. I wanted to take it off, try the different stitches, and put it back on before warranty ended. I had read a couple of bad reviews on the net about this machine, that after taking the embroidery bed off, their machine would no longer embroider. Not a problem here.

There are some makes and models that are strictly for embroidery.

Hope you find a good one soon!

I have a Baby Lock Esante and I love it. You can download from you computer and you also can do some editing on the machine. I have had it for 3 years and wouldn't give it up for anything. It sews wonderful also.