Thank you everyone for all the responses. Between what has been said here and what has been said to me in private messages, I think I am going to arrange for the major sewing store in town to arrange a showing for my wife so she can pick what she wants. I may have not given her enough credit in my initial post... she has been sewing and quilting (I thought this was her first quilt... I misunderstood [you know how we husbands can be with our listening skills]... it is her first jean quilt) since she was 12, she just hasn't really had time to do either for the last few years since our kids were born 13 months apart and she home schools the kids. Our kids are now getting to the age that she can give them an assignment and not have to watch over them like a hawk to ensure they actually do the work, so she has started to get back into her favorite past-times.
If anyone has any other suggestions on machines, though, please keep them coming. The more I can learn about this stuff, the better. Unfortunately, when I am home, which isn't often (don't you just love lawyers?), my wife and I prefer to spend our time enjoying each others company and talking about innocuous things, so I don't want to make her feel like she has to give me a lesson in sewing/quilting and the like.