Want to applique baby's name.... But never did it before
 

I am happy enough about cutting out the letters but, since the quilt is for a baby, I dont want to leave them with a raw edge. I guess that means needleturn? Any other technique I could try??? What is the name of the technique where you stitch over the edge with dense wide stitches? Is that hard to do freehand?

I do a satin stitch on my applique letting...its the zig zag but very close

I use a small satin stitch and let my machine do the work.

I use pellon and Iron the appliques on then use a satin stitch (one shade lighter)

I use a lightweight fusible and often choose a blanket stitch over satin stitch. If the letters are large enough, you can cut out the middle of the fusible and just adhere the edges. It makes the center softer, more like a needle turned applique.

You really can do that on your machine but it sounds like you just might rather want to do it by hand. If you do decided to try it on the machine, I would practice first with a couple of different stitches, and stitch lengths - blanket and satin. You might find you like one better than the other. I know I did one applique recently with a tight satin stitch and now I really don't like it.

Good luck - take a picture of your work when it's done for us to see!

Yes take a picture!

Eleanor Burns has a method that you applique with interfacing put right sides together, stitch a scant seam, cut a hole in the interfacing, and turn to the right side, then attach with decorative stitches. Check out her Quilt in A Day site if you have any questions

If you are wanting to do them by machine, the satin stitch would be the sturdiest. Just be sure to use an interfacing as
satin stitch does "pull" in some while sewing.

I add the names of toddler quilts I make. I make a printout on the computer with different fonts until I find one that I like. I then print it mirror image on freezer paper. I then iron the freezer paper on the fabric that I want to use for the applique. I then use either the heavyweight fuse or the light weight depending on whether I want to edge stitch the pieces. I have seen some of my quilts after 4-5 years of use and the names are still great looking. And the kids really love having their names on their quilts.

the blanket stitch is always nice to me itcomes out really pretty especially in a darker thread, thats what I have used in the past

Be sure to make some practice pieces first. There are multiple techniques for doing this; one might work better for you than others.

I think the easiest would probably be to apply fusible to the back of fabric, cut out the letters, fuse them to the fabric, then cover the edges with satin stitch. The thing to be careful about with this technique is that satin stitch has a tendency to create "tunnels" in your background fabric. You usually need to heavily starch the background fabric first (1:1 solution of Sta-Flo liquid laundry starch and water, or equivalent) and/or place a piece of stabilizer under the background fabric. The stabilizer can be tear-away, dissolvable, or even just typing paper (a little more difficult to remove). Also be aware that satin stitching is relatively inflexible. You might want to use a wider stitch that is less close together. If you are good with FMQ, you could do the wider stitch thing free motion. You can also use a decorative stitch free motion. However, most people simply use a regular zigzag stitch with feed dogs up.

Thanks everyone for your replies. Prism and others have mentioned some of things I am afraid might happen!
I am off to practice ;-)

One lucky thing is that there are only four letters in the name......