Believe me I know exactly how you feel....When I got mine back in February I was terrified...My husband ordered it from Allbrands.com and the best thing about it was it came with a step by step video that has been a godsend....The question about the bobbin thread, yes you use white and black and the best place I have found for thread is at Hancock fabrics, every few weeks or so they have 40% off sales on their embroidery threads. What I found at Walmart was only a few colors and your right it was very expensive.
Hope this helped......Good luck, you'll love it once you get use to using it....

I am very new at embroidery myself and still feel overwhelmed. I have only embroidered two Christmas stockings that I am making for my kids and I want to do more, but I want to start out slow. I have a Brother pc-8500 and it sews like a dream. I use the sewing part almost everyday, but now that I feel a little more comfortable with the machine, I think I will get more used to embroidery soon.

I have been dealing with Ken's Sewing Center for a couple of years. They are a family operated business and I have purchased large and small items from them and I have never found a better price anywhere.

There embroidery thread is only $2.00 a spool everyday. You might want to check them out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ken's Sewing Center

Although the bobbin thread is a bit expensive, you get a whole lot of bobbin mileage out of that spool. You will also need a few different colors of machine embroidery thread for practice and to practice changing colors. The fabric stores are always having sales and you can use their 40 percent coupon off for that.

Walmart does have some really good deals on stabilizers, another necessity you will need several types of to use according to the fabric you are using. I would start out with tearaway as it's about the easiest to use. For practice and learning the machine, a yard of muslin will fit the bill or other fabric you might have in your stash you don't particularly like or regret buying. The other item is a good supply of machine embroidery needles in various sizes.

I suggest you thoroughly read the manual a few times..the first time, it's like reading mud and gets better the more you read. Then when you have done that, practice the directions page by painful page until you have everything down pat. Then you can fearlessly start embroidering with confidence because you know what you are doing by then.

I hope your machine came with a CD to view as many times as you need to. I usually buy my bobbins already threaded from a seller on ebay called Erikathreads. She sells about 50 for a good price. You usually only need white or black. She also sells thread for a reasonable price. Good Luck. Practice. It is scary at first but as you practice you will become more comfortable with it.

i guess i will just have to take time to learn how to set the patterns up and everything. Thanks everyone for the info. There is an all brands not to far from me. Maybe they won't mind showing me a thing or two. Is there a program I can get to download more patterns to put on the machine insead of buying the cards?

You have to buy a box, like the Ultimate Box or the Amazing box. You will then put your downloaded patterns on a card that comes with the box to use in your machine. You can use the card over and over as you can delete from it when you put on a new pattern. You have to make a place in your computer to download patterns from the internet. My folder says Embroidery Designs and in that folder I have folders for each seperate design.

Which one is better Ultimate box or Amazing box? I posted on another site and they got off on a tangent on wheather or not to buy from ebay. I would love to know a better place than Wal-Mart to buy thread. This machine takes the smaller spools b/c of the "cassette". Thanks for all of the info.

Ultimate Box or the Amazing box. That is what you need

Here is a link that might be useful: embroidery fonts

Hi I am trying to stitch out a design and the bobbin thread comes up on top-- any help here as what I may be doing wrong or what to check.
Thanks so much.

HELP! I just bought a Viking Husqvarna Designer Topaz 20. I want to create my own designs, they want between $1600 and $1900 for the Pro software. I only want the design wizard but you can't buy as standalone. Can anyone recommend similar software that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

Thanks, Kathy