OK.. here is advice from an old hand at hand piecing... yes, by all means cut templates. mark fabric on wrong side on stitching line using either a lead pencil or an archival pen or a white pencil.. which ever is appropriate for the color of fabric, etc. then using a ruler mark 1/4" seam allowance. This will be your cutting line. I cut all of my piece by hand.. it really helps when you are just starting out, to have everything marked.. and to pin everything. accuracy makes it MUCH easier. when you start to piece .. pin pieces together. As someone else said.. you will stitch corner to corner.. Do not stitch into seam allowance. Do not make knots in thread. Just backstitch about 3 stitches on each end of seam.. it's hard to quilt through knots. If there are any questions I can answer or any help I can give you.. just let me know. there are a number of good websites to get patterns for templates. The best thing for templates is clear template material, an extra fine Sharpie marker (be sure to transfer info like number of pieces to cut, and grain lines onto the template) I keep a notebook with patterns and piecing diagrams in a notebook, so if I want to use that pattern again, I already have templates.
http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltpa...lock-Patterns/ .
http://www.quilterscache.com/ here are a couple of websites for free patterns. Have fun