I started the piecing yesterday on my first Dahlia attempt. I'm using the Marti Michell templates. It's not as hard as I thought it would be but it is also very exacting. It takes a lot of marking, pinning, and careful sewing. The templates have marking holes to make dots where to stop and start stitching and where critical points need to line up. It's a lot like hand piecing to me. When I do that I put pins in exactly along the line of the finished size so that they are aligned.
I guess I'll see if it all lines up when I start to put the curved pieces together! Since I didn't know what I was going to make when I got 1/2 yd of each fabric I don't have enough of the last two large pieces of fabrics and I ordered more.