Hi and welcome to the board. The reason why the applique looks so 'puffy' in the picture is due to the very heavy quilting done in the area around the applique. They may have also done some trapunto. You can fuse the applique, blanket stitch the edges or do both. The raised effect has very little to do with the applique, it's all about the heavy quilting in the surrounding area. The quilting compresses the background making the applique appear raised.
Last edited by PaperPrincess; 02-22-2014 at 05:01 PM.