It's still a wonderful scrappy top, Cattitude, even if the fabrics didn't behave the way you wanted them.
I've been having a surprising amount of fun sewing on this adding machine tape. I think having the automatic thread cutter on the Bernina is key, I'd have gone through three spools of thread with my vintage machine doing one width of paper at a time, then pulling back and cutting off.
The paper comes off super easy. I did a light mist of water, slid in the popsicle stick and the pieces came out nicely without a lot of fluff or chads stuck in the seam.
When I think I'm getting slanted on my pieces, I just fold the tape to give me a straight line. Part of me does have some problems with the idea that these are deliberately imperfect and not all identically exactly 1" wide or whatever. Wish being loose didn't make me so tense but it does! You can sure see my skills improving from my first test -- but the worst of those were simply fixed by just tearing out the paper and sewing a new seam. That's an advantage to pressing to the side I hadn't fully appreciated which is what this fold over foundation method does.
Some of the fabric likes having a single pin to hold it flush, some is fine with none. I have a tray set up with my pieces to the side, a hunk of tape to work on (I could do it continuously on the spool but 2 feet or so an easier size and time commitment, and then you just add on another hunk if you want. Then it's just zipping along until coffee break time like now.
I've made the "ribbons" for my block, and still have a bunch of these little pieces to use so it's a good thing I'm having fun.