I use a very light weight, iron on, nonwoven interfacing. Draw your design on the smooth side of of the interfacing(put paper under it for bleed though). Then cut it out leaving about 2” all around. Place it rough side to pretty side of your fabric (I use smaller pieces to do thos) pin around the edges, and stitch on the line (I use ink that nearly matches my fabric so if it bleeds, no problem) all the way around the shape using a small stitch with matching thread. To turn, slit about 1/2” inch or so on the back and carefully turn it right side out, finger pressing all the edges, being careful that all the fabric is not folded in. Now I can iron it in place, hand stitch it down all around the shape, and carefully trim the back away leaving at least a 1/4” seam allowance. This works really well with simple shapes, but for small pieces I use the method I showed in this tutorial from a few years ago.
Easy appliqué tutorial I promised