Sorry I'm Not Home Right Now. I'm Walking In The...

Does anyone else remember that mid 90's No Doubt/Gwen Stefani song?
 
I'm still here.  I got lost in the "spiderwebs" last night, we were out of town over the weekend, and the end of the school year is just as crazy for the wife of a teacher as the teachers/students themselves!  Last night, by awesome hubby recognized that this week is going to be super busy and took the kids out of the house for the evening.  I told him I wasn't going to do anything that "needs" to get done and I was going to sit at my sewing machine for the first time in nearly a week!

These are for a spiderweb block swap using this tutorial.  Obviously, they need sewn together still.  If anyone has fabric scraps they are looking to get rid of, send them my way :)

Spiderweb Block

Today I did a lot of fabric cutting as part of my WIP Challenge (sign up if you want to join me!).  I had lots of scraps so, I decided I would practice the spiderweb block or, rather, try it for the first time ever.  I love this block and have even signed up for a swap (you can still sign up for this too) of them.  I found the tutorial super user friendly but I do have a few questions if anyone has ever made them (see below).

When do you remove your paper?  I removed them before sewing the four triangles together but had issues with a few stitches coming out (see top right corner).  I also want to play with my stitch length to see if that helps the paper come off easier.

Have you ever tried phonebook pages?  I used regular computer paper and it worked just fine but I recall reading about using phonebook pages but I wonder if they would be strong enough.