I just learned paper piecing too, Did you use reglar paper or did you use vellum paper? I bought a pack of paper for paper piecing but it was kind of expensive. I needed tons on flying geese for a border and used regular copy paper on that one since it was such a simple pattern. I'll save the good stuff for something hard. I found that craft tweezers were helpful in getting the paper out of the points. Your sampler is gonna make a stunning quilt.