Thanks for all the replies! Lots of good input. I did try the
hummingbird highway mug mat kit out, and found it a bit tedious to do the initial placement of the fabric on the fusible. It worked great though, and I learned about furling seams to make the tiny blocks lay flat. While I think it worked great for the mug mat, I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to do it again. I also bought some of the gridded fusible to try out, but have yet to get around to it because I have been busy with other projects. Regardless, after doing the mug mat I think it might be a bit too tedious to do any large projects with it... especially after hearing the reports of how bulky and stiff things turn out.