Rag Dies-Yay or Nay?

I bought an Accuquilt Go! cutter several years ago, but a couple years ago I upgraded to a Studio Cutter. I MUCH prefer the Studio cutter, for several reasons. I sold my Go! cutter to help fund my Studio cutter purchase, and I don't miss it at all. I sold some of my dies with the Go! cutter, because I purchased almost all of the strip dies for the Studio cutter, so I knew I could cut squares and rectangles easily without the shape specific dies. 

Why do I prefer the Studio cutter? 

1) The handle on the Studio cutter is much easier to turn than on the Go! cutter. 
2) I can use Go! dies, Studio dies, Ellison dies, Blue Wren dies, and even a lot of Sizzix dies on my Studio cutter. Some require an adapter plate, but I just bought the largest one for Go dies and Sizzix dies and I can make any of those work now. 
3) Studio dies are larger, and cut up to 10 layers at a time. If I need a bunch of 1.5" strips, the super giant Studio die can cut 40 WOF strips in one pass. The Go! die for the same size strip can only cut 15 in one pass. 
4) In the long run, I believe the Studio cutter is LESS expensive. I know, the cutter itself is more expensive, by quite a bit, but you only buy the cutter once. Dies are the real test. If you look at the website, and there isn't a sale on, Studio dies look far more expensive. The thing is, Go! dies don't have good sales, 20% off is about as good as you'll get. Studio dies go on sale for 50% off or BOGO several times per year. When I bought all the strip dies for the Studio, it was a 60% off sale. 

I have a good selection of dies, and I really like most of the ones I have, but I am questioning my purchase of a rag die. Normally I find the Studio handle very easy to turn, but I find it so difficult to turn with the rag die that DH had to help me cut out a quilt. I have another rag quilt that needs to be cut, and he'll have to help me with that too. I have learned that if I tilt the die in the tray so much it starts on a corner, that it is a little easier to do. 

I had read the review on rag dies. I knew that the are very hard on cutting plastics (or mats if you are using the GO!). I am making two twin sized rag quilts, so I figured one cutting plastic per quilt. Make that 2 cutting plastics per quilt! The cutting plastic gets so damaged from that die the fabrics embed in the plastic, and even with frequent cleaning of the plastic and using a sticky roller, it still happens. DH was trying to make the cutting plastic last longer so he even started sanding it, which helped it make a few more cuts, but even with all that we went through two cutting plastics for one quilt. 

I had hoped the rag die would allow me to have each block piled nicely to take it straight to the sewing machine. Now, since these quilts are using my late sister's knit shirts as the top layer, I don't know if it's the knit fabric that is causing the biggest problem. The die is cutting the fabric just fine, I'm not having to snip threads or anything because it's not cutting. The knit fabric is getting very caught in the cutting plastic, and lifting off the flannel layers, so I'm going to have to spend a lot of time fiddling with matching up the layers before I can quilt through each block. Trying to match up the layers is made much more difficult by the fringe, and honestly, If I knew this would be the result, I would have never purchased the die. I was thinking quick, easy to sew blocks, and no spending hours snipping the seams. I need the second quilt to look like the first, so I will cut the second quilt with the die too, but then I think I'm done with that die. Snipping seams is not as much of an inconvenience as the difficulty of using the rag die. I think if I was doing a rag quilt with all flannel, it would work just fine, but for a t-shirt rag quilt, I wouldn't recommend it. 

All that said, I do think the rag quilts will end up looking nicer made with the die. I don't snip seams as closely as the rag die does, and since the knits won't fray, I think the smaller fringe will look better. Flannel frays just fine, so although I think the die would work better with all flannel layers, I don't see the necessity of using it. This is really my first case of die purchase remorse.

 Here is a basket filled with about half the blocks for the first rag quilt. I think the quilts will look great when finished, but using the die wasn't the labor saver I had hoped for. 

I rearranged my sewing room a bit. I decided I really do like the extension table up on my Bernina cabinit, so I moved it 90 degrees and put up the extension table, and moved my Singer 201 next to the extension table. The design wall is behind me if I'm sitting at the green cabinet. There is more room between the cabinets than it looks like in this photo. I really need to get better lighting in my sewing room, and I've been researching better ways to do that. I'm thinking LED linkable shop lights around the perimeter of the room. 

I moved my Iris scrapbooking cart under the extension table, and I can fit a second one there just fine, so I ordered another one. I really like these scrapbooking carts for quilting projects. The project boxes snap shut, so they can easily be taken to other rooms, or even on a trip. The cart means they slide out just like a drawer, so taking out the bottom one is as simple as grabbing the top one. You can buy the project boxes separately, and stack them if you prefer, but I really like the carts. I'd like to make 2021 the year of the quilt kit, so cutting up a few quilt kits and putting them each in a project box so I can take them out and sew them as I can seems to be a great option. I have too many quilt kits in stash, and I really need to get them made. I've only purchased a couple quilt kits from other places, but Craftsy/Bluprint was my downfall for buying quilt kits. I'm very glad I can keep watching my Craftsy classes even after the buyout, but them not selling supplies is probably good for me ;-)

 

Do any of you have great lighting in your sewing rooms without using several floor lamps like I currently have? What did you do to get good lighting? I am definitely open for suggestions!