Thanks everyone for the kind comments! The only other paper piecing I ever did was a small 6" sample square of a boat. I found that it is much easier than I ever expected! Definitely worth giving it a go if you are interested in trying it. I do have a couple of suggestions though:
1 - buy extra fabric. the pattern required 3/8 yd blue for each section of the sky. I bought 1/2 and was cutting it very close. I would imagine as one becomes more experienced, it's easier to cut it smaller than I did, mostly for the triangle or odd shaped pieces.
2 - I had this bright idea that it would come together easier if I sewed around the block 1/8 from the seam...well it did, and looked pretty, but it's a pain in the butt to remove the slivers of paper! I won't do that again! LOL
3 - carefully consider your fabrics. I used mostly batiks. Much of mine were scraps anyway, but there is a lot of tiny waste, so less expensive fabric would really be more practical. I didn't mind on this one as it was a gift.
This was also the first time I did a totally scrappy border. I am more of a "symetrical" quilter, and have a hard time doing random. :) I cut various sizes of my colors and piled them by color. Then I used what I picked as long as I didn't repeate more than once or twice in the side I was working on. I did peek now and then to see if I needed more of a particular color. With a little more practice, I could probably do a scrappy log cabin w/o hyperventilating! LOL