Originally Posted by omak
something else to consider ... the strips do not have to be one piece to go across ... you can sew strips end to end and if the "strip" changes in the middle of a line, no harm, more charm!
One of my friends goes through her scraps, cuts three sizes, 1", 2", and 2.5" ... and sews like-sized strips together, rolls them up into a jelly roll.
When she has a bunch, she starts a strip quilt, and just mixes the sizes of the strips from time to time to create "movement" and interest.
Helps gets those scraps in control, and creates a project that can be added to as time goes by.
Plus you can use all those scrap triangles on the corners if they're big enough. Since you sew the blocks together before you take the paper off you can pretty much do what you want for the strips. A lot of mine weren't even straight, they were skinny at one end and fat at the other. I did use the widest strips in the centers of the light blocks since I knew I was going to cut them and sew them on that diagonal.
The main reason I used newspaper over phone books or some other paper was I could get bigger blocks to start with.