i recently made a 'chicken little quilt' which required a lot of heat n bond. i used a large scrap of muslin across the ironing board to help keep the cover clean and used that as the design work surface. i used a sheet of copy paper on top as a pressing cloth and it worked great. just a note..i dug out an old travel iron (small) and was amazed. i will definitely stick to this procedure in future applique applications. just thought i'd share that. the advantage to using copy paper or parchment (a little more expensive) instead of a cloth is that it does not stick to or grab the fabric you are working on.