Originally Posted by catrancher
You have plenty of good ideas here. I'll just add my two cents. I always use blanket stitch around my appliques. You can do a couple of straight stitches first to secure it, then blanket stitch right over the top of the straight stitches. You won't see them. I've done this with satin stitch too, but I think blanket stitch ends up looking better, especially if you haven't done it a lot. You must stitch down all raw edges so they don't pull up. Then you can do your decorative top stitches. When that' all done, make the quilt sandwich and quilt away!
I also use the blanket stitch by machine. There are different ones so try them out on scrap material first and choose the best for your flowers. Mark down the number so you know it for next time. I would sew all the beads etc on first before quilting, it makes every thing go a lot easier.