I have seen all kinds of good advice on this entry on today's forum, and have run the gamut of feelings of how much your wife really wants to be a quilter. I give quilting lessons, and can tell after the first lesson if the student will become a quilter, or not. Everyone's advice is spot-on....be as patient with her as you already have been. I have shopped many a time with my husband's "grouchy face" behind me, so at least she is not dealing with that frustration as she pursues a habit that can become the best thing that has ever happened to her. And CL and Ebay are good advice for finding a good machine; my advice would be a vintage straight stitch Singer or clone (looks be damned); and once she masters that, many of the new ones are so noisy that she will not even want to see it demonstrated at the store. Quiet is important to me, and many of the old Singers just whisper when they are stitching.....Good luck to both of you in this pursuit, and keep us posted on what happens.