Don't know what you plan to spend on the single needle maching. My thought is if, you have the means look into a multi-needle machine. If your looking at a Brother, they make some nice multi-needle machines.

I have two Brother ULT's a 2001 & 2003 and I use them for embroidery only but I have used one for regular sewing. I started out with the Brother 150 and wanted to do biger then the 5x7 hoop so I had a chance to purchase these machines. I really like them. I go in spells of doing embroidery. I love to do freestanding lace and RedWork.
Go to a dealer and you could probably get a good used one because people are always wanting to step up to the newer model. They will give you lessons also and that does help.

I received the PE500 a couple of days ago. So far I LOVE it. I do not mind the smaller sized hoop as I mainly bought it to make labels. It was easy to set up---easy to learn----and works great. I had a little trouble retrieving the letters I had saved, but finally figured that out. I have made 5 labels so far.

This is what I can afford and I am very happy with it so far.