We eat at our dinning room table every night.
I keep a fabric tablecloth on it all the time, but at dinner time, I whip off the fabric tablecloth and below it is a vinyl tablecloth I keep on 24/7, easy to wipe clean and it protects the table. I have done it that way for 20 years.
Some day I would love to have a quilted tablecloth, and once I do, I'll do it the same way.
So go on, make it, use it, enjoy it.