I like Carol Doak's books also for the "how to" part. As for paper I take her book the the copy shop where I can play with the size of the pieces. Once I get the right size pieces for the size block I want, I make as many copies as I need for completion. If you're just using scrap strips and sewing them together for a certain shape, use pages out of phone books or I've used an old atlas I found. Cut the pages to the shape you want and start in. Phone pages are easier to remove also.