Heart Blocks

Ok, so I'm really having a hard time with this heart thing. I mean how hard can it be to make heart blocks right? I signed up for my 1st block swap in over a year. It's "Block Lotto", which means u make up to 3 blocks and they have a drawing, then 1 person wins all the blocks. It's not due till Febuary, so ya plenty of time, no pressure. NOT! I can't even make a heart block! Maybe it's the pattern, everytime I make a block out of "Block Magic, Too" book, it never comes out the right size. Ugh! I even worked really hard to make them bigger, cause I knew mine always came out small. The top pic is barely 12.5 inches. I actually think it turned out pretty good considering how hard I worked on it. Ok, so the blocks can be 6, 9, or 12 inch blocks, so I made up a heart block. Simple, right? First mistake I cut my red square (heart) 7x7, supposed to be 7x6.5 I was doing good until I tried to do the bottom corner. Luckily I sew big stitches, I ripped it out, cause it was on the wrong side. Of course, not sewing for 1 yr, I can't find my ripper, I did it by hand. I resewed it, cut my corners, did top corners, put next to each other. And I have sewn the wrong bottom corner AGAIN, only this time I cut it, so I couldn't rip and resew. I couldn't just start a new side, because I used scraps for the white and didn't have enough. So, I have sewn the 2 sides together and invented a new block. Looks cool, huh? Lol Anyway, back to square 1 (actually 2) and starting a new heart block.