Cre8, I think what was meant was that it;s a break from piecing to do some applique every now & then.
There was a lady on TV who invented a techniqe called "pliecelique" where she pieced (set in) every applique piece instead of applying the patch on top of another piece of fabric. It was interesting to watch how she glued the the seam allowances down, cut out the back fabric layer & then stitched arounf the patch on the fold line. I don't think I have the patience to do that! :-) I love machine applique, but don't do enough of it. This quilt will give me plenty of places to machine my brains out!