THIS is how I learned to quilt, from Mary Ellen Hopkins of It's Okay (If you Sit on My Quilt, Because I can Make Another!) fame, way back in the very early 1980s! She was one of the first in the strip piecing, making block segments mentality and I've been so grateful I learned this wa to begin with.
It thrills me to see your graph paper pad out! I've had all the computer design programs since the very first one called PC Quilts (or something like that), but I still go to my favorite chair with color pencils and graph pad. You can visualize and re-create virtually any block in any size when you use this method.
Jan in VA