Pennyhal and I are on the same page when it comes to teaching beginners. We could have been looking over each other's shoulders during my two efforts at teaching Texas granddaughters (and others) to sew and quilt. My first year was spent teaching all of them to use the rotary cutter, measure WOF, close the rotary cutter, sew a 1/4" seam with a painter's tape on the sewing machine.
This year was a little more advanced--we used 2-1/2" rolls (I forget what they are called); everyone made a strip quilt, placing them long ways and side ways, or cutting into 2-1/2" squares and sewing them, matching all corners. Needless to say, some of them, found the four matching 2-1/2" squares too hard to deal with. But, all in all, we had a wonderful time, lots of wine, good music, and fun cutting and correcting mistakes.....