I have never posted before, but I wanted to share my solution as to how I keep track of which direction I sewed which strip. I leave the long thread tails at the beginnng of the row when I start to sew on a strip and cut the tails short at the end. That way, if I get distracted, I can always tell that if the long tails are at the top, that is where I started sewing that strip and know to start the next strip should start at the other end. Seems to work for me.