I headed back into the city today, armed with the suggestions in this thread, thank you very much ladies!
At the reuse center, I found a twin sheet, baby blue, that I can use for fabric, and one piece of what looks like it might be a muslin, about a 1/4 yard. Plus an armload of other things I might use one day.
I hit one of the few independent fabric shops in town, and .... found muslin for inexpensive. Yay!! $7.99/M (39") - BUT, it's 114" wide, so it works out to nearly US pricing.
I picked up 3 meters. (I love how the widths are always listed in inches, but we buy in meters. )
Then we headed to Ikea, about an hour away from us, so I grabbed a half dozen of the $3 throws.
The two of those things should keep me in practice pads for quite some time, especially if I use the dissolving thread too.
I really like the idea of using these to make a QAYG too,... I will try to keep them uniform, and save the best ones. The ones with multiple pillar crashes may become dog beds and pot holders (it's just, eventually, you don't need any more pot holders.).
I'm really looking forward to the weather clearing up, we went right from snow to April showers all through May and this part of June so far, so I can hit some more garage / yard sales. I have made some pretty good scores at those sorts of sales.
Our walmarts here don't sell fabric, haven't in quite a few years, so there's no clearance table for us. We do from time to time take vacation in the US, so I will remember to check them out when we're there.
The felt is a great idea too. I run into it from time to time at the thrift store.