This sounds so much like my grandughter who is also 11 she will be 12 in Oct. For her first quilt and sitting at my sewing machine I taught her how to cut the blocks 4 x 4 and had her pick her colors and sew them together. Then she was able to see what her mistakes were and take them out as needed. She made rows put them together and made her first quilt, it was extremely easy block pattern but she learned alot of how to sew 1/4" seams, measure and cut. And let me tell you she took off from there. Good luck and enjoy her because they grow up so fast. This would also be good for the 6 year old or maybe they can do together. I had alot of left overs for her to work with an easy block pattern with just showing them how to sew and put them together nothing fancy.