Just what is it about the thought of appliqué can give an otherwise confident sewer the sweats? Does it revive memories of harsh needlework teachers ripping out work because your stitches weren't small enough? Or when some judge at a exhibition made scathing comments about the quality of your stitches? Or you overheard someone questioning your thread colour choices? Or that you require of yourself that you do tiny, perfectly even stitches and know you won't be able to make your own standards so don't even try?
If you're someone who never does appliqué, you're missing out on a whole area of sewing and quilting. The A-word no longer means only hand appliqué. Modern bonding materials mean that you don't have to do any sewing at all if you don't wish to. Iron-on appliqué (sold under various trade names) means you can simply iron on the appliqué. It's got "glue" on both sides: you simply iron it onto the fabric, then peel off the paper from the back and then iron down your appliqué. It's easiest if you iron it on first, then cut out your shape. A disadvantage of iron-on appliqué is that the result is fairly stiff; one way to reduce this is to not use it for the entire shape, just the edges, though this is more fiddly to do. The edges of iron-on appliqué can be left as they are or covered with satin stitch (zig-zag stitch on a sewing machine set to a very small stitch length, so the stitches are close together).
The next easiest way to appliqué is to use satin stitch around the edges. Because this hides the edge of the fabric, there's no need to turn the edge over to hide the raw edge. Experiment with different stitch widths to see what you like and try different threads as well as colours of thread. Embroidery thread, which is shiny, is more noticeable than cotton thread. A thread that's a contrasting colour to the fabric will have quite a different result to a matching thread. For example, using a deep yellow or orange to appliqué yellow flower petals will create a two-tone flower, whereas a thread that matches exactly will not be very visible. Also experiment with varying the width of the satin stitch, for example decreasing it as you come to a point and increasing it again as you stitch away.
If you find satin stitch too heavy or dominant, consider using your sewing machine's blanket stitch. This gives a result which seems almost hand-done, but of course is a lot faster! You will need to turn the edge in on your appliqué, unless you like a rough edge. After a while you'll find that you can do this as you stitch along, judging the amount of turn-in with your eye and doing it as you go. But at first either iron the turn-in or pin down the piece before you start.
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