Please can someone help me with advice on what would be the easiest, and not too expensive embroidery machine to purchase. I would be using it mainly for quotes, names, dates etc on personalised stuff.

I would also like to be able to use my own designs from the computer. I have been researching on the net for over a fortnight now and my head is reeling. I live in the UK and in my area sewing machine shops are non existent so I have no dealerships etc. I will probably have to rely on purchasing one online.

Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm no help, but I want to welcome you to the Quilting Board.:)

Welcome from Michigan.:)

I have the Brother PE770, which only does embroidery, no regular stitching. The largest hoop size is 5 x 7 and it uses besides cards the USB port for downloading designs. Uses PES or DST format.Will that work in the UK? The price is around $700.00
Bought it online.

Tina, My experience is with the Brother machine. I have an older one 2002D which translates into built in 2002 and has some Disney designs built in. I bought it from a friend and she didn't want much for it at all so I was very lucky.... It also has about 10 different fonts for letters built in. Most of the machines have some fonts built in and you don't need any software for your computer to get them to work. This is the case with most embroidery machines. Now when it comes to your own designs you will need to have some sort of software that you can 'digitize' them. A lot of the embroiders that I have read about don't use the software that is made for their machine. Each machine has their own version of digitizing software and they don't work for the other machines unless you have a 'converting' program. BUT there are several digitizing programs on the market that are cheaper and they are not fixed to the specific machine. If you are looking for simple and less expensive I would join the Yahoo! groups. There are Brother, Viking, Singer, Pfaff and of course the places that sell stuff like SewItsForSale, Quilter's Flea Market. I know how confusing it is trying to figure these things out on your own. It is just as bad when you know nothing about quilters on the frame and start looking..... Try a search here for embroidery software and I'm sure you will find all kinds of responses.

Thankyou so much for all of your fast replies and welcomes. This search is just driving me potty! Anyway will take your advice and look at yahoo groups etc.

Tina

Welcome to the Board!
I have a Janome 350e. the largest hoop is 5inches by 7inches and it also comes with a 4inch by 4inch hoop.
It uses a flash drive to transfer designs from the computer.
It comes with 3 (I think) built in alphabets and a lot of designs.
I think I paid around $1200 new but I'm guessing.
I took it out of the box, set it up and was embroidering within 1/2 hr. It's very easy to use.
Good luck with your search.

If you are in the Williston, ND area --a lady is selling her PFAFF 7570 for $800.00.

I like Imalwaysquilting, have the Janome 350E soooo love this machine....It is so user friendly...and was up and running quite quickly.

I have a Singer Futura CE150. I love it, and am waiting on some Christmas colored threads to do more of my projects. Great machine, I highly recommend it especially if you're on a budjet.