I saw somewhere a lovely quilt with dark squares, and a fussy cut flower in the middle. It showed up nicely against the dark background. Probably a raw edge applique, but I didn't look that closely at it.
It was done with the same size plain square template, which had been set on top of one sample flower. Then the quilter had outlined the chosen flower with a washable pen. This way she could put it on top of each flower and get the exact picture, multiple times. I've seen this suggested on this forum, but forgot who did it this way so can't praise her or him. Clever way to do it, wish I could have thought of it myself!!