I have a portable ironing board about the same size as a cutting mat that's the width of the ironing board. In fact, I think it was a quilter's mat with grids on it. I covered it with a piece of discarded ironing board cover & change that cover it it get's too much fusible web on it. This saves wear & tear on my "Big Board" ironing board cover.

If I did not have this mat, I think I would cover a piece of plywood with Warm & Natural & then cover with ironing board cover by stapling to the back side.

when we moved to our new house 4 years ago somehow the ironing board took a detour (or ran away, escaping its slave-dom)...i was pretty freaked...our neighbor had a yard sale the same week we were there looking around, lady asked if there was anything in particular i was looking for, i told her, was hoping for an ironing board...she says 'wait here i think i saw one somewhere'; comes back a few minutes later saying, i thought there was this ironing board out in the barn...probably been out there for 20 years, would you mind giving me a buck for it?....omg...my hubby gave her a $5 and told her, keep it, it's worth it. we took it home took the cover off it and threw it in the laundry. i put new cotton batting on it then the clean top (one of the silver ones) there are no holes in it, once in awhile i think, one of these days i should buy new cover...but so far...

I bet that is one hefty ironing board! Mine never has stayed level. Irritates me, but not enough to buy a new one. DH made me a Big Board to fit over it so I can press yardage without having to move the fabric side to side to reach it all. Just pull it toward me in one piece. Love it. But it does need a new cover which I will make removable next time.

I have a "Big Board" same cover going on 6 years. I have 2 teflon sheets for pressing and press all of my blocks in
between them. Works and my board is nice and clean.

I have only changed my irnoning board cover once, and it was because the cat got ahold of the pull strings on it and ripped them so the top was loose and floppy. I fixed him, I got one with elastic instead of pull strings! Maybe I just don't iron enough. lol

[quote=Linda B]Can't say I have to change that often, but I do certainly have a worn area where I do most of the pressing. I got one of those small portable tables that Walmart sells - just a little bigger than a TV tray table - and had DH cut a thin piece of plywood to cover it which I then covered with some batting and the silver ironing board material. That is what I use for pressing blocks. It's really handy because I can set it right beside me when I'm sewing and easily move it out of the way when I'm not.

I read about doing this in a quilt magazine a few years ago and a friend, who's handy unlike me, did it for me. She thought it was a silly idea but after finishing it asked if I had an extra TV table and made one for herself. I don't press a block til it's finished and don't use starch, but have had to change the cover a couple of times anyway.

I change mine about once a year, but, I actually don't mind ironing, so I do that too. I have two friends who like to iron, and the rest of them laugh at us, but, the three of us compare irons, covers, etc. Sounds funny when I type it, but, that's one of our many idiosyncrasies I guess.

Once a year is plenty for me.