question about appliques... fixing to do my very first ones and I'm having thoughts on how to do them so I thought I'd check with my experts (i.e., you who are much more experienced)...

maybe I should tell you what the quilt is like first... it's a mini-quilt for an exchange. it will (or should) end up looking like a window looking out. single-fabric quilt, clouds material, both front and back. I'm doing front and back individually so I can quilt each cloud, then sewing them together so one side will look like you're looking out, the back will sort of look like you're looking in (or at the window with the cloud reflection)...

putting a sun in upper left corner, sunbeams will come from sun, over the sun and sunbeams I'm putting window panes, and at bottom right, sitting in window will be a cat looking out...

have backed the sun with 2 layers of white fabric, with fusing between all 3 layers, sunbeams will have no backing so that clouds show through just a little bit.

here are my questions (and or thoughts) for feedback:

thinking of backing the window panes and cat, so they are more solid, so no clouds show through

for those pieces I back and fuse, since they're stable, I'm thinking of finishing off the edges of them with some type of decorative stitch...BEFORE... I sew them on the quilt. So that when you look at it, it has a decorative stitch, but the stitches on the back will be a basic straight stitch. NEED FEEDBACK... what do you think of this idea? is there a better idea?

I don't want the back of the quilt to end up a hodge-podge of weird looking stitching, I want it to look clean and crisp.

or instead should I just use a very narrow satin type stitch to sew all the applique on so that the back is distinct but not fussy? but that way the edges of all the applique pieces are all finished off nicely?

or instead should I just use a straight stitch (or a triple stitch) very very close to the edge of the applique and just let the remaining edges rag up for a slightly fuzzy look?

Help!

practice on a scrap piece and try the blind hem stitch w/a very small stitch length. If I understand you correctly, you want the window and the cat to stand out more?? You could do that w/greater detail on them w/threads such as movement in his fuzzy hair...wood grains in the trim, etc...also, you could stitch around them, and then open from the back and stuff w/a bit of batting to give them more a real 3D...if you attach a backing at the end of your story. Sounds like a great and fun project! Skeat