I was in an unique situation. I had my die cutter (Accucut Grande Mark, which is identical to the Accuquilt Studio) for my paper business at least 15 years before I started quilting. I had 100s of dies, but they were all intricate dies for paper items. Stuff you wouldn't want to cut by hand. When I started quilting, I made my first few quilts using a rotary cutter. I mean, come on, I was just cutting straight lines. Why pay for a die? Well after struggling with getting seams to match, I realized my rotary cutting wasn't quite as accurate as I thought. I got a couple used dies on ebay and what a difference it made. I now have about a dozen quilting dies, mostly basic geometric shapes, but a couple for cutting curved blocks. My favorite is Winding Ways. I've made 5 of these quilts and can't imagine doing curved piecing without die cut shapes. I spend less time cutting than before, but the big thing for me is accuracy. I think my quilts go together quicker because I'm not struggling to get seams to match. I had lots of experience positioning stuff on the dies, so I don't have much waste. The bottom line is that yes, I really feel that the added expense was worth it and would have purchased a cutter for quilting if I had not already had one.