Hi Chele, Misstreated,ChristineD, D A Meyer, Thanks so much for all your help and particularly for your kind remarks. I will be doing this with a bit of renewed vigour.
Honestly, applique is a breeze and so much easier than those blocks which just frighten the life out of me :( , I did them for this quilt but put them off till that was all that was left to do. Steam-a-seam2 for the applique is what I use which is double sided sticky and it works so well.
You do have to machine round each piece of fabric (or handstitch a rude word in my book) but with a clear plastic foot on your machine its a doddle. If you have a blanket stitch or satin stitch on your machine away you go girl. Love to you all Elle