What is your price range, are you looking at new or used machines, and are you looking at strictly embroidery or a combination machine? This information helps to know so that people can recommend a machine within your budget range.

I could prohably afford about $1500, but am not opposed to more budget-friendly machines if the quality of the work is comparable. I live in a small apartment and have no room to leave my machine out all the time, so while the idea of a combination machine is nice, I think they are too big and unwieldy to take in and out of the closet.

Just received a booklet flyer. Jo-Ann's will be having a 50% to 60% sale plus 40% off coupons starts July 3rd till July 24th
Also have Sale and clearance on sewing machines and embroidery machines
If you have a Jo-anns near you perhaps take a look at the machines and demo them.

One question: do you have another machine you can trade in and get a combo (space saver) or are you new to sewing and starting from scratch.

I'm glad you brought up the storage problem. Not only do you have the machine, you also have the instruction manuals, attachments, stabilizers, fabrics, needles, and embroidery thread storage to consider and whether all of it will fit in that closet or if you will have to purchase a sewing armoir, a sewing station type thing, or construct some type of non-permanent sewing area or table within the apartment.

Storage alone will cut right into your budget. Machine embroidery is not a cheap hobby by any means and can turn out to be a storage and money hog if you don't watch what you are doing and purchasing.

I will soon be selling my condo and downsizing to a smaller sized condo. I will have have to take into consideration my accumulation of sewing and embroidery which now fills one 5' wide closet, 3 tough totes--wait, make that 5, a 5 drawer 48" campaign chest packed to the brim, the piano bench (what sheet music?), and 2 foot stools with flip up lids I keep under the sofa table to store the current hand embroidery projects so (sew) I think I will need a second bedroom. I've already downsized, reorganized, and cleaned out sewing once when I painted the closet and doors with no new sewing related purchases--sniff, they know me by first name at the home improvement stores.

I have a Brother PC8500, and the embroidery unit stores in the machine carry case. In the case, it is about 24" wide X 18" deep X 24" high. It does weigh A LOT though! More than my old machine that only sewed.

If storage space is a problem, I certainly would choose a machine that sews and embroiders - otherwise you will need 2 machines (unless you don't sew).

The PC8500 retails around $3,000, I think, but Brother has other machines that cost a lot less. I love it! It is so smart, and has the instruction manual built right in on the screen, plus sewing advice, a ton of decorative stitches and quite a few embroidery designs. It has about 6 different alphabets built right in! Plus, you can put a little card in it with embroidery designs.

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MSMeow- I guess I was lucky...I found a Brother PC8500 for under 1k..Used of course.
Not that I have used it to it's abilities...NOT is right.
I have had it for less than 9 months, and am a bit intimidated by what these machines can do.
Actually, I love the way it sews. It is better than my Kenmore sewing machine. So, I put up with exchanging parts to sew or embroider. It is worth it.

I vote for the Janome 300 E for price and ease of getting designs to the machine and storing designs for the price that is. It is emb only. So glad I did not by the little 4by 4 machine first
Use Embird every day. Best investment I made money wise. I found all my emb thread cheap too. Big spool too Bought stablizer cheap too during sales or over net.
Have more time than money. Dont spend money on vacations, eating out etc. Buy used items, thrift store yard sales Drive 1978 car and lucky enough to live near bus route etc
I use my used Artista 180 mostly It was from dealer and they gave me a 3 year warranty too Got the softwear half price(version 3) when the newer version 4 came out, Which is unusual Can not stand paying regular price Only The Janome 300E was new
I use my other used sewing only mch to sew. This IMHO of course

If you have $1500 buy a Viking Iris and the software and card reader. Wait for a sale.

There's a tremendous difference in quality between brands and machines.