Welcome Barbara! Your story sounds like mine! My grandmother was a semstress with her own shop and everything. Later my mother took up quilting until her life ate up her time, and has been away from it for a while, and now here I am, eager to take up the slack.
Welcome to the board. I think it's a great idea for you to practice seams and such, that's what I did, I started with a 9 patch, and as I learned my abilities grew. Not to mention my sewing got better, ;) Thank goodness! ;)