http://www.amazon.com/Steady-Betty-1...sortBy=helpful
This is the link that shows the Steady Betty for $90.00. And 29 cents! Our quilting group has the foam on their Big Board, and I do not like it. Maybe a small piece of it would be OK, but for large pieces, I want the fabric to pull up and over the board without resistance.
As for seams, I usually try to make the scant quarter inch seam. I've heard that if you make all your seams the same, it won't matter too much. But I made a quilt from "Man Sewing" which joined a lot of strips, then cut that resulting piece into equal squares. By using the scant seam, my piece was wide enough so that I couldn't get three of the squares out of one piece. What a waste. I did save it though. I had to piece a few of the ends of strips. When I press those seams open, they don't show much. After the quilting, you won't know, but that was a lot of work!