I have the rag die and love it. I put piece of vellum or tissue paper on the die before the fabric. This keeps all the threads out of the die. When I hear someone complain about the fabric waste using a die cut machine I know they have never used one or seen one used correctly. I get more waste then you do though because I use layer cakes for all my rag cuts. I eliminate all fabric cutting when I can. I like sewing not cutting. Try the big 9 1/2" hex die. It's great. I cut the fabric shape in half for a different pattern. I use the 6 1/2" tumbler die a lot too. I also cut those down the middle and resew. Thanks for the pictures.