Judith, when you cut a bit larger and then trim down, it's not that hard to do. I learned this doing the 365 block challenge, and the good thing about that one is they do provide all the "trim to" measurements. It makes something that looks difficult be a lot simpler, and no paper piecing.
I personally think the directions for this sampler make it harder than it needs to be. And to get around that, they resort to paper piecing too often - I think I found three blocks that "require" paper piecing. For the most part, I am ignoring the directions. I look at the picture and use the templates to get measurements, and use what I learned in the other challenge to do the sewing and trimming.