Rebecca, I have the Brother PC 8500. The design comes up on the screen with little pictures under it showing what it will stitch and what color it should be. For instance, if the first color the designer digitized is sky blue, it will say "sky blue" and have a little picture of the sky blue part of the design. You thread the machine with the sky blue and tell it to go, and when that color is done it stops and cuts the thread. The little picture of the sky blue part disappears from the screen and the next picture says, maybe, "red." You then thread red in the machine and tell it to go, and again it stops and cuts the thread when it's done. And so forth...

Donna

With mine,there's a start point and when it gets to where you need to change colors,it stops and beeps at you and tells you .

Yes it does one color at a time.

Keep in mind if you order from HSN or any of the other tv shows,you will not get lessons,nor will you have hands on help,the kind you would get if you got it at your local sewing machine dealer.

Now this is just me,but i would never order something like a sewing machine/serger from tv ,magazine etc.

In fact DH approached me about getting my new serger from QVC,and i told him thanks,but no thanks.I wanted to get it locally where i know there will be support system if i need it and a place to take it for service etc.

Nor would i buy one from walmart for the same reason.

Like i said that is just me and JMO.but i think it's something everyone should keep in mind because these things aren't cheap.
Kathi

Kathi makes a very good point. I got my machine at a show over in Clearwater (about 3 hours away), and then discovered there was no Brother dealer anywhere near me. The closest one was about an hour away on the other side of town, and they have since gone out of business. So I never had any classes...my embroidery skills have all been learned by reading the manual and a lot on forums, and trial and error. I feel like I could progress a lot farther if I could just find some embroidery classes.

Donna