I was taught to hand piece by 2 wonderful ladies. It was a class at our Library. We did a whole quilt. We marked our 1/4 in. stitching lines. Say your sewing 2 squares together. we stuck straight pins, straight thru the 2 pieces, where the 1/4 in. seam intersected. We started stitching in the center of the block, working toward the corner, when we reached the corner, our needle would come up right at the intersection, remove that pin, and start toward the other corner, stitching where there was not a stitch before, and working past where you started, toward the other corner, when you get to that corner, turn as before and go back to one stitch past where you started in the center. This way you have one continuous line of stitching, no spaces between stitches. Your points are always points, and you can make any pattern, no matter how difficult. One of the blocks they had us do was 12 1/2 inches and had 84 pieces in it! Best class I ever took.