Wow, Underneath that humor is one sharp quilter. Yes, I had rather use templates. I began to notice that some quilters made a series of diagonal squares and stiched them together in the pattern of blazing arrows and that's when I knew we weren't following the instructions. Where I messed up was when I cut the first block. It was the center and should have been around 3 or more inches but given the instructions it came out smaller each time I made it. Will try your block it looks fabulous. Thanks a million.