I was surprised that even with 2.5 inch strips there was plenty of wiggle room to make the arcs fit. Plus with the quiltsmart method, you don't need to be 100% accurate when sewing the arcs together either. I did contact Quiltsmart because with jelly roll strips a plenty, it seemed obvious to me that someone should be reworking the templates for this for 2.5 inch strips. I was told (this was last September) that they were already working on changing the pattern/instructions. If you have the template just cut one or two arcs the regular way and sew together. I measured down from the top of the wide part of the template and I bet I saved 1/3 yard of fabric of each color I used.
I think this method is totally doable and honestly the end product has just as much wow as one done the other way. I'm not the best sewer/quilter and I did it!