Theresa, I don't know about string blocks, but with paper piecing you are supposed to leave the paper in place until the top is assembled to help support the blocks. I have heard that spritzing the paper with a little water makes it easier to tear off, though I haven't tried it. I usually just pick it out with my fingers and tweezers.

Donna

You can remove the paper whenever you want. But like you said it does get bulky. Perhaps you could remove just the corners before piecing.

Thanks ladies! I think I am going to switch horses in mid stream.

My original plan was to make rows of 8, then joined to a strip of Sashing. That is a lot of paper. Now I am going to make blocks of 4 with alternate blocks with NO paper and no bias edges. That should be much easier. And probably a nicer looking quilt!

Theresa

The paper rips out more easily if you use a very short stitch length.

When I made the only string quilt I have ever made (Bonnie Hunter's String X quilt), I cut the individual blocks to size and then removed the paper. The blocks definitely "grew" after the paper was removed, and I had to trim them again before I could sew them to the non-string parts of the final block. I would think that if you sewed the string segments to the non-string segments while the paper was still present and then removed the paper, your blocks might have puckers in them. Just my thoughts on the subject.

Thanks Lois, I didn't think of that. And I am using a short stitch length so that should work easily.

Theresa