One of the very first quilts I made was a cheater panel my sister gave me for my daughter who wanted a play quilt. You can say that not only was I a novice, I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing. Sooo I took an old mattress pad, and used it with a layer of poly batting and another layer of mattress pad. I know, but amazingly my Kenmore loved heavy fabric, so although I just machine quilted SID around the squares in the panel, I managed to finish the quilt, bound it and gave it to my daughter who used it to play with her Barbie dolls outside on the lawn. At least I knew that the rocks, sticks, whatever wouldn't poke through the quilt. Yes it was quite heavy, but she loved it and it was a great play quilt. Would I do that again - NEVER, but I might use one layer of mattress pad without extra batting.LOL