Phasing a Stepper Motor Control Project Problem
I might suggest looking at 3D printing firmware such as Repetier and Marlin, and the Arduino Playground for smaller projects such as simple stepper control, reading and debouncing switches, and digital rotary and Analog pots. I bought a cheap (wired USB) PS3 controller to get some ideas. It has a wide variety of input options. And the local hardware store comes in handy along the way. 

I'd also recommend moving up from the Arduino native IDE to something like the free version of Microsoft Visual Studio with the Visual Micro add-in for Arduino. This will give you breakpoints, variable access, and handy formatting enhancements. 

Getting to where you want will take a while, but the end result will be lots of learning, and an end project that does exactly what you want, which no one else sells or even has.