Things are going much better now. I was very surprised to find that for me the best results on piecing the curves came from using no pins at all. Thank you for the backporch design link and also the reminder to watch Ann Peterson's class, both were especially helpful. Also the tweezers were a really good tool for feeding those last little bits in right at the 1/4 inch. And of course the convex curve underneath made it much easier.
The pins seemed to twist and ripple the fabric so much that it was slow and frustrating ( not much patience here).
I love the pattern that your colours are making Kristakz. It really shows the benefit of a design wall. Did you lay it out in EQ before the wall or design the placement right on the wall?
faykilgore the die cut curves are great because they have the middle markings on them and are so consistent but I have used the backporch design templates on a NYB and found my curves were very consistent with them as well. I doubt very much that I could have made a decent block with a paper template and really admire anyone who has made a curved quilt that way.
Thank you again everyone for offering so many different ideas. It would have been a shame to continue making a pile of dog bed stuffers ;-).