My favorite form of applique is needle turn and I haven't done any in years. I believe it give the most crisp pieces. This is where my wand iron works the best. I would not put the Pellon Easy Knit Stabilizer on the back ground fabric. This would make things to heavy. Talk about hands hurting if you are hand stitching.
The learning curve is not so difficult. I think it only took me a single block of what I would do to master placements and stitching.