I don't think that's a bad price to quilt it. However, I would think she should have been told up front the cost of binding. I still think it's reasonable since the binding is hand sewn. You can quilt on the same machine but the bigger the throat, the easier I think it is. Assembling the 3 layers can be daunting at first, especially if you start with a larger quilt, but it gets easier as you do more. Congratulations to your wife on finishing her first quilt!