I too, have made several of these, and it does not call for batting. I also used for the main fabric, a panel that is across. It us either going to be bigger or smaller than the main fabric requirements, but it will just change your border width. I also flipped the ends the opposite way so that the panel would not be chopped off at an awkward place, so the flipped side goes to the back, and hand stitched the ends down so that the sewing line would not show through on the front side.