I love my wool ironing mat for my machine embroidery and also ironing shirts that have buttons. I really don't see any difference from using my regular ironing board or the pressing mat for my regular quilt blocks. My mom used the old army blankets on her ironing board when I was growing up. She always said it was more for ironing over buttons or embroidered items. So when I made my big board I used a double layer of cotton batting. (It never occurred to me tot use wool batting at that time.) When I saw the wool mats I thought it would work best for my embroidery and it did. My regular ironing board cover is one I bought that is thick and for some reason said I should not wash it, not sure why. But I do wash it in my machine and then just line dry it. When it wears out I may make a new cover using wool.