When I learned to quilt, I took a class that was totally hand pieceing from templates and hand quilting. Not long after that the rotary cutter was available and changed the cutting process! I still have those templates, made from cardboard with fine sandpaper glued on the back. Now, of course, you can buy templates made of acrylic, around which you can rotary cut. We used to trace around each template, mark the seam lines, and then cut with scissors. Oh, how far we've come!
It is nice to have a project I'm doing by hand because, as said before, it's portable. I also find it's just a totally different experience. It feels like I have a stronger relationship with a hand-pieced and -quilted project than I do with machine projects. But, of course, machines are much, much faster!