we were definitly doing totally different things, with the ones i do you just make your little hexagons and sew them together, no strip piecing, so 2 different techniques, sorry i'm no help.
when i first paper pieced i hated it because it seemed like i used up a whole fat quarter and about a 1/2" piece of fabric actually showed in the finished block, i was so frustrated. a couple years later i ran into a Carol Doak paper piece stars book and decided to try it again, had much better results, sometimes the way they tell you to do it is very different, so maybe a different book by a different person will help.