Heart Condition

I purchased the Charm School Lesson 6 pattern from Quilted Quickes (actually got it from Fat Quarter Shop – it looked easy enough!). I have been reading and reading the instructions and I am SO confused! If you can help me or have any ideas, please let me know!

First, I am to cut 8 of the 5″ squares in half to give me 16 2 1/2″x5″ pieces. That I can handle ;) … but the next instructions are throwing me for a loop. They say:

Cut 2 2 1/2″ strips from the fabric designated for the checker squares.

Now, all I know is that I am to have 1 1/8 yard of fabric for the checker squares, outer border and game bags. so I’m wondering… 2 1/2″x what??? Then it says:

Place checker square fabric strip (again, I am unsure of the dimensions of said fabric strip) facing up and place a 2 1/2″x5″ strip (cut from the charms in step above) right side down on top of the checker square strip. Take a 1/4″ seam (does that mean “sew” a 1/4 inch seam?), then place another 2 1/2″x5″ strip about 1/8″ down from the first 2 1/2″x5″ strip and take another 1/4″ seam (again, does “take” mean sew?). Continue this chain piecing technique until you are our of 2 1/2″x5″ pieces (see illustration 1) — which BTW makes NO sense to me, but the illustration looks like this:

Then cut apart sewn units into 2 1/2″ strips (see illustration 2 — which is below). This yields 32 units after cutting occurs. The dotted lines below are cutting lines, not seam lines (according to the instructions) …

This may not be my last question about this as the instructions seem somewhat ambiguous … can you help me???!!!

This is the 2nd time I have picked up these instructions to try and figure them out … what am I doing/seeing/reading wrong?