Curves Sewn !

Thank you all for your encouragement!  In the end, the curves were not as bad as I feared - what a relief!  As you can see in the photos, I used TONS of pins and sewed super slowly - practically one stitch at a time in the beginning (You can also see from my backwards pinning that I'm a leftie).  Also, the 1/4 inch piecing foot with guide really helped me feed the fabric through evenly, and not least of all, Aneela's tutorial explains every step thoroughly with lots of photos to help those of us who are more visual learners.  I just adore this pattern - maybe one day I will attempt a queen size Double Wedding Ring quilt, but I am not sure that day is here yet...

Lots and lots of pins!

I am not sure it would have been possible to use more pins...

Assembling the four football-shaped units to the central panel was by far the most difficult part.  I had a tough time making the point where the units join together even and symmetric (the point between the teal and yellow fabrics in the top right corner above).  The seam ripper was put to good use, and in the end I hand-basted the pieces together so that I could get an idea of how the seam needed to be sewn.  The other two units went together more quickly once I understood where the stitching went. 

I snapped this out of my kitchen window on my way to work this morning.  I added a tiny border to the block to make it the right size for my pillow form and also for the binding to be set back a little from the edges.

Ok, well now I'm off to give hand quilting a try!