I can sympathize with you since I am NOT a very good hand sewer. I had tried applique many times and to be honest...I stunk at it.
I saw this really neat idea of making a burlap bag to put apple potpourri in and I loved it and wanted to make one. I decided to take my time so I could display it in my kitchen. I had to use red plaid and green plaid fabrics to make the apples and the leaves, brown for the stem etc. and all had to be appliqued on a large block of muslin. If I must say so myself...it looked fantastic and my family and friends said how "professional" it looked. LOL
Haven't done anything else since then and I too have seen a lot of neat table runners that require it...so I shy away. I guess I need to get up the nerve and try it again. I'm not a patient person and like to do everything in a hurry so I can see the finished results. I need to slow down and keep telling myself how many projects...craft and sewing...that I gave up on because I either took shortcuts or hurried through with a lot of mistakes.