Hi and welcome from Texas! What a thoughtful thing for you to do for your wife. I am a mostly self taught quilter, my grandma showed my by hand way back when I was little. A few years back I took it up again, and also learned by machine.
In addition to lots of helpful advice here, I would also do a google search...there are a lot of good articles for newbie quilters..Also Amazon has many great books tailored for quilters of all skill levels.
Here are a couple of links..I also buy books used, you can get some great deals:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ing%20quilting
Link to google search articles for beginners:
https://www.google.com/search?q=help...l=np&source=hp
In the search box here on QB you can type in help for beginning quilter, or words to that effect, it will bring up lots of helpful posts. You can also ask any questions you may have. There are no stupid questions! We were all beginners at one time..and many of us still are!
Good luck, and please post pics of your progress!
K