In the beginning you'll follow the directions about placing the fabric on the cutter and you'll waist material; but then you get smarter and do it your way. The one thing that I'll tell you is to make sure you pay attention to the bias because that will change the size of your block. Other than that; I love it. I make rag quilts for alot of people and that makes my life so much easier. I will go to Wal-Marts and get alot of flannel and spend one whole day cutting out material and do the quilting part of the block and then stack them up so that when I need to make one I pick out the appropriate block and sew them together. This machine is great; a big time saver. You can get the dies on sale alot; even on ebay.