I've done lots & lots of hand embroidered blocks/projects over the years- I've always just backed my embroideries with a light weight muslin- just like 'kathdavis' said- was taught to do it that way 45 years ago. some people choose to use some sort of stabilizer- but to me muslin is less $$ easy to stitch through, and works fine- so I do not spend the extra for some 'specialized' product. your choice- any lightweight stabilizer will work- I never heard of anyone using a 'tear away' behind hand embroidery before (snipforfun) said she did- I would be afraid of 2 things- the hand embroidered stitches being pulled out when I tried to tear that stuff away- and the show through- after removing it- since the extra layer hides the threads from showing through on the front of the finished block- seems like you defeat that purpose by removing it. (maybe she meant she did machine embroidered blocks & removed the stabilizer???)