I purchased a Babylock Ellure Plus at a local sewing shop. When I took the class to learn more about my machine, one other lady and myself had a Babylock, the rest of the girls had Huskyvarnas (sp) which is their main seller. The lady was not the most helpful, she really focused on the other ladies. Funny thing though, they had alot more trouble working with their machine than I did. The Baby is very user friendly, which I am told so about the Brother. I also seem to learn much better with trial and error by myself. There are some great books on the market, one of my favourites is Nancy Ziemans Machine Embroidery With Confidence.