It was quick. I believe I started on it Tuesday evening after work and finished the body Friday evening. A few hours a day I guess.
No, it didn't take hardly any fiddling at all. The points where the strips meet at the triangle go together naturally when the stips are layed together and cut into HSTs. Because I turned the two opposing blocks in a section to face outwards I don't have the small center triangles meeting in the middle and none of the seams meet between the blocks either.
The only thing I squared up was when I had the 4 blocks sewn together into a larger block. I didn't even measure them. I just layed them on my lined cutting board, lined the two center seams up on the same measurement line and just it square. It just all came together.