Rachel from Stitched in Color recently had a blog post about this with examples for pros and cons. Rachel, if you don't know her, is an amazing quilter and also a longarmer. Here is the post. https://www.stitchedincolor.com/blog...pplique-quilts

If appliqués are fused and machine appliquéd I don’t mind if quilting just goes over the appliqué. However when I invest the time in hand appliqué I either quilt around the appliqué or invest in custom quilting by a long armer.

The buttonhole stitch is different than the The blanket stitch. I would not do a button hole stitch. I would stitch around the appliques before quilting using a small zip zag. I personally don't like zig zag or buttonhole stith showing on the back. I would do light interfacing and turn the edges of each leaf. Not a fan of raw edge, then use a hemstitch, -----v---v---v (best I can do on graphic) before quilting. (then quilt around the leaves).

I have done appliqué both ways, and I highly recommend doing the appliqué first. Trying to maneuver any size of quilt through a domestic machine can be challenging. It is much easier to maneuver a flimsy! I try hard to appliqué on blocks before piecing, but there are some things that just don’t work that way. I have done buttonhole, satin, zig zag, and raw edge in various ways. Only raw edge (done in FMQ style, not on a domestic machine) was halfway easy to do after quilting.

I did a sample on a sandwich and while it will work it is going to be a big pain to turn the entire quilt each time to stitch around each leaf, so I think I am going to have to do the applique on the flimsy.
Quiltingshorttimer, I think your idea is genius and this may just be the way I go.
Thanks, everyone.

Watson