Dee Cee, I hope you get on well with the finger cots. Losie, I mark out the whole of the design onto my background before I start appliqueing. By the time I have finished, some of the markings have faded a bit, but are still enough to be able to go over them again. If there is some embroidery that needs to go over an app. piece, then that is part of the reason I cut the background away from the back of the app. piece. I can then put it back on my light box with the design underneath it, and mark as before.
If the app. piece is not easy to mark that way, then occasionally I have cut up my copy of the design so that I can lay that over the app. piece in order to mark it. Hope that helps.