I would guess (from personal observation only) that about half of all quilters regularly send out some of their tops to be quilted, and the price your wife paid sounds reasonable. Additional charge for binding is also to be expected. If your wife would like to quilt her own, another option is to get Marti Michell's book "Machine Quilting in Sections" and learn various ways of quilting the quilt in smaller sections. This is much easier than pushing the whole quilt through a domestic sewing machine's throat.