My husband made my large ironing extended board for ironing lengths of fabric. He put skids on the bottom then we stapled one layer of cotton batting and a piece of fabric, which is a poly blend I believe on it. I knew I wouldn't use the fabric for quilting as it wasn't very heavy. It works very well for this. My husband also made a board to go on the ironing board at the church where I go to quilt for charity. We enjoy using it there too. Made the same way.

This is true. Especially when you are using steam. You have be to really careful not to iron back and forth, just press then lift up your iron. I was reminded of this last week when I was helping a friend iron her blocks while she just sewed. She had one of those purchased cutting boards with the ironing pad on the other side. I think they must use foam under the ironing board, as it was really squishy. When I started pressing with steam, the first block got distorted a bit. I had a dickens of a time getting it back in shape. From then on I made sure to press and not iron and the rest were fine. This is why I like a firm board with only one layer of batting underneath.

Aren't husbands great. They are so useful.

I found a nice piece of striped canvas at Walmart and stapled it to the top of mine (with one layer of batting). Makes it easy to keep pieces I'm ironing straight.

Picked up a piece of plywood, ticking and 100% cotton batting today,.........marked my ironing board outline and tomorrow I'll put the brackets on and tack down the batting and fabric. Can't wait to try it out.

Thanks for all the great tips. My ironing board has such a thin layer of batting that at times my blocks will have the imprint of the metal grill from the ironing board.

When my friend and I made ours we used 2 layers of 100% cotton batting. The batting seemed so thin and we knew it would pack down with the pressing we decided it would be better to use the 2 layers. She had some cotton fabric she knew she wasn't going to use so we used it, also a double layer. Her DH suggested we use little finishing boards over the fabric on the back to reduce the stress on the staples. This was several years ago and it still looks good. I have decided if I do need to replace the cover I am going to make a removable cover.