i'm getting a new home embroidery /sewing machine

it's inherited from my grandmother, along with a bernina serger. I pick it up in a couple weeks when I go up to michigan,

Does anybody else here have one, I don't know the model number on it, thinking of buying some embroidery thread for it, and looking at patterns for embroidering, though i'm not buying those yet till I get themachine.

can you download patterns from the internet, and save to a cd and use them on the sewing machine? anybody know? seems my mother was downloading patterns for her embroidering machine just wondeirng?

What kind of embroidery thread should I get? silk? cotton?

I am a seamstress and have a couple other machines, and a hemmer and another serger, but never had an embroider machine before, I'm so very excited about getting this, it's a dream come true, that would never come true if I didn't get it through my grandmother.