Welcome aboard! I'm waving a safe personal space away from the Seattle. When I was a little girl, my dad was in the army and we were at Ft Bragg, I don't remember much but I have some memories and we have some friends in the Greensboro area now.
My best advice is to take a deep breath and go for it! You will learn as you go. If I could figure it out as a teenager with no family tradition of quilting, you can do it here and with the internet. It's just putting fabric together, one piece at a time. In the early days I recommend lots of what I call "driving lessons" long strips with 1/4" seams until you get that right, something like a 9- or 4- patch or just alternate squares is a good project to learn your machine and get the hand/eye coordination started. I do believe that sewing is/can be physical and it doesn't come as easy when you do it yearly as compared with sewing daily.
Recognize that you may have to build up skill to get what you want, that's ok. We don't just jump up and win the Olympics without some training first.
While yeah, there are standard ways of doing things, or things you particularly should do if you are planning on showing a quilt there are no quilt police who have any authority over you. I press my seams open for various reasons, I have 40 years of quilts to show that it is fine. I used to be about precision and technique, now I'm about speed and slicing and dicing and cutting/sewing large and then trimming down. I'm actually faster and more accurate now than I used to be, but that's what works for me and I find it more fun.
Find what works for you and what you enjoy doing -- and when you can, we love pictures here! Figure out how to post them and share both the triumphs and the failures. We all start somewhere and we all end somewhere, I'm dealing with vision issues and think my best work is behind me, but I'm going to keep on piecing and posting and ticking as long as I can.