I like the cotton tightly woven twill.
If you make your own - shrink it before cutting.
Bought one with my Big Board - and I have to put it on almost wet to be able to stretch it to BARELY cover the top.
I like the removable covers that I can take off and wash to freshen them up every so often.
(Well, I do have a cat that likes to supervise - from guess where?)
I use a lint roller in the interim to get rid of fuzzies, snippets, and hair.
I also use the ironing board as a cutting table.
I like the June Tailor Cut n Press board for when the regular ironing board is buried. :oops:
I do use the lines to help square up blocks and press strips straight. I would check the ACCURACY of the markings before blocking to those sizes. One of them I had - the markings were off -