I started doing cross-stitch with yarn and giant punched plastic when I was 5 years old from a kit. My mom is not a good sewist but she loves crafts. Wish I had a picture now of that first orange & green butterfly cross stitch, but it was fun! I traded that for latch hooking for a while, only to return to stamped cross stitch when I was in my teens. I graduated to counted cross stitch & then onto embroidery of stamped items like pillowcases that I would buy at my local Michael's (they don't have the selection they used to, sadly). I also did beading. I just kept picking progressively harder kits & following the instructions & my grandmother would help me when I'd get stuck or if she saw I'd not formed a stitch properly. I also took a class at LQS that was for a quilt with a lot of hand embroidery stitches (and hand applique) and I must say, that was the most helpful because I could get direct input from the teacher & when I thought I had it but really didn't, she could point that out & help me correct it before it became a bad habit.
I do little bits of embroidery on pretty much every quilt I make (see eyes & noses on bees and bears, & love it. Like any physical skill, the muscle memory builds the more you practice.