When we were on vacation last year I visited a quilt shop in Lyndon Washinton which had the most beautiful selection of hand embroidery on quilts. All kinds of wonderful quilts on display - so inspiring! The owner of the shop (who had made most of the quilts on display) said to use a piece of plain white cotton behind the fabric you are stitching on, in other words do embroidery through 2 pieces of fabric. This works great. I have made several projects this way and it keeps the embroidery piece nice and soft but has enough body to stitch on. Depending on the size of embroidery I am doing, I usually baste the 2 pieces of fabric together before stitching.