Beautiful pattern and nice color choice! I suggest leaving the paper in (as many others have). Is there a setting on your machine which you might have changed. I'm a beginning sewist and have accidentaly moved the needle to the left or right when I thought I was changing stitch length.
My Avatar is PP work. My biggest issue was waiting to trim the fabric until after I had folded over and pressed it. Trim it ahead of time and the fabric will not cover the next space. OOPS!