I have a BabyLock Elegante that my hubby bought me two years ago for Christmas. Then last year...out of nowhere, he bought me the Brother Duetta.....so I had two (well three cause I have a Bernina 180 that is about six years old). Anyway, the Brother Duetta and Babylock Elegante are EXACTLY the same. Brother makes both. This year he is buying me the Brother Quatro and I am trading in the Duetta(they are giving me full price that I paid for it.) I got a call today and it is in so we will pick it up on the weekend. Brothers do BEAUTIFUL embroidery and they are the most user friendly machines. Although I love love love my Bernina for sewing, it was NOT user friendly and I never use it to embroider. The babylock and the brother are going constantly. They have wonderful features. The brother has exclusive rights to the Disney designs, so if that is important to you, you would want a brother. The Babylock does not have Disney...both machines are awesome.

Margie :)

Mine is a Brother ULT 2001. I just love it. It's a great machine for any level of sewer and trust me I never thought I would say that. When you get into the high end machines the sewing machine companies think of them as a long term investment at plan on supporting then at least 10 years. Oh inspite of what my DH said (that I should get a machine with Disney) my machine isn't a "D" machine and therefore doesn't do it, but I don't mind, it's wonderful anyway.

The ULT 2001 takes cards and floppy disks. Trust me this is a nice feature especially for those of us who have a floppy still on our PC's. The disks cost a bit more than they used to but not like the cards. Newer machines now take a USB which would be a great feature allowing for the storage of more designs on one thing (currently I think mine stores about 30 or maybe a bit more per disk), but the time it takes to put it on the disk or chip is the same.

My Elna is brand new, and I feel I'm better supported by Brother with my used machine than my new Elna. Of course I bought both online which you're not supposed to be able to do with Elna so that might be part of it.

Margie is exactly right about the Brother and the Babylock though. The Brother ULT is just like the Babylock Ellageo. Here is the Ellageo [img]http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/...-Ellageo-3.jpg[/img] As you can see the Ellageo is just a bit more boxy, but that boxy look is gone completely gone in the newer Babylock models.

Patty I wondering if you still have your White emboidery machine, I have one and it just sits must of the time because I can't get it to stop breaking needles.

whats the opinion of the brother se350?

I have the Disney machine by Brother, and I have Pfaff. I will tell you that I use the Brother because it is so simple to program and I absolutely love it. The only drawback is the small hoop.

I am thinking about getting the Qautro 6000D. This would be my first (and probably last - can't imagine something it doesn't have). I expect to be able to use it for quilting and embroidery. Have your used yours for quilting and sewing also?
I am from Western PA and definitely a Steeler Fan.
Gloria

I started off with a Janome 350e - and it was a great machine (more than double your limit though) and then I sold that and got a 4 needle machine which I hated. It was loud and I couldn't figure out how to center things and the dealer was worthless when it came to helping me. I sold that and bought a Brother 4500d which I absolutely love. I don't use it nearly as much as I should I'm sure but when I do use it, I love it...

Having said all of that...
Brother does make some entry level machines - keep in mind they only have a 4x4 sewing field which is good if the only thing you want to do is monogramming or something like that. You will very quickly wish you had a bigger sewing field.

You might be able to find a used machine - try to get one from a dealer so they throw in a warranty at least for a little while.

I have the Brother LB 6770 Project Runway embroidery/sewing machine. I really like it but I wish I had got the one with the ability to do the Disney and a larger embroidery field. Mine only does a 4x4. It costs $546.00 tax included.

I have this one and i LOVE IT, it is very smooth, I am still new at using it, but so far, everything about it is great. I got mine at a walmart for $170, it was the floor model and they were getting rid of it...I was very worried it would be broke etc...but this baby runs like a dream. Best thing i have done.

I've had a Brother for about seven years. I love it. It has a large embroidery hoop but they must have come way down in price because I paid ovr 2000 for mine. It still works fine. We won't talk about how much I spent on thread. Ha!