I remember a friend of mine who said she would NEVER do that "A" word. Well then we did a fund raising quilt where she agreed to do a block. After finishing the block I figured she would never touch applique again. In stead after seeing the end product she went on to do applique on most of her quilts. Now after swearing to never do the A word another friend helped with a machine applique project and is now hooked. I know its frustrating when learning, but my suggestion would be take the skills you have learned and then "do it your way". I rarely do hand applique anymore, its always machine work.