Making a patchwork quilt is probably a great place to start - it'll get you used to your sewing machine, plus patchwork quilts are timeless and pretty! Just pick out a color scheme you like and buy about 10 fabrics, and get a quarter yard of each. If you cut squares that are 7 inches all around, you'll get about 6 from each quarter yard. 60 total squares from your 10 fabrics. Then you can put them together in a 7 x 7 or 7 x 8 grid for a nice lap quilt, which will be easy on your sewing machine to quilt. And easy on your patience.

I'd also get a small rotary cutting board and rotary cutter (probably around $20-25). If you have a Joann nearby you, you can always find a printable coupon online to apply to that stuff, or just wait for it to go on sale about once a month. Their quilting fabric is also fairly inexpensive - you can probably pick up the amount of fabric you'd need for the quilt top I described for less than $15.

I did my first patchwork quilt entirely by hand... never again! lol Be glad you have a sewing machine!