I followed Peggy Martin's guidelines for making a string quilt and she says to take out the paper before joining. I did and it all went together great. No problems and no stretching. I was careful when I took out the paper so I wouldn't stretch the block. Leaving the paper in to the end would have made the quilt hard to handle.

I remove the paper also after I have sewn 4 blocks. Once in a while, if the block is rather large, I will remove the paper and then starch the heck out or the blocks and square them up. I have a couple of pizza boxes full right now of starched trimmed blocks waiting. . . .

I used muslin in mine so i wouldn't have to remove it. But in foundation piecing, i leave the paper on until the blocks are sewn together.

I prefer to use my vast old collection of thin cheap fabrics I have accumulated, or an old worn sheet from the good will. I have used paper and I do not like it as I usually end up tearing out a seam or two along while tearing off the paper.To answer your original question , when I did use paper I tore it off all at once and then regreted it because I had to repair so many blocks .

I'll be making my first string quilt next month at our guild's retreat & we will be using paper foundations, so I'm really interested in the feedback here. I like Audrey's idea of trimming it with an extra 1/4" all the way around. It makes sense to me to keep the paper out of the seam, but still have it there for the stability.

Has anyone ever tried used dryer sheets?

I guess I am lazy. I don't use anything. I just sew strips together and then cut out my block. I have done them so the strips are straight and the same width or I have sewn them so it doesn't matter if my seams are crooked or not. I don't worry about bias. Never had any problems sewing the blocks together.