It worked! I did it! I did it!
 

I have been trying to figure out how to do appliqué on my quilts and other projects for years. I have tried needle turn ( lumpy curves), then I tried iron on appliqué (too stiff), then I tried iron on interfacing and turn inside out, then hand stitch (works great for bigger shapes, too difficult on smaller shapes) and finally one of you wonderful people here suggested in a link to follow along with a video on Youtube to learn how to do it another way. Success!
The Youtube video is "McCall's quilting fancy flowers quilt along: lessons 1-11"
I watched all eleven videos, got out my liquid starch, and a small soft paintbrush, and some freezer paper and got to work one Saturday. I worked for me!
It took another member mentioning a free pattern on RJR fabrics site to find the perfect test of my new skill. Now if any of you have kept up with my work, you will notice I seldom work on practice pieces, I just go for it, and my growing pile of UFOs proves it. (I have a really stiff pile of blocks for a teapot wall hanging to show for my work with the iron on, lol!)
the free pattern by Robyn Pandolph for www.rjrfabrics.com
The picture is my translation of her pattern, with my own embellishments, hat I am going to turn into a hunting quilt for BFF's DH. His birthday is in October, wish me luck. The other two are the panel I am working on, and a close up of the dish my plant is growing out of. It is just a scrap of Christmas fabric that looked like an Asian ceramic planter. Worked pretty cool if you ask me, and I can no longer see it as Christmas fabric.
Well, what do you think? Will it pass the 'fast horse test'?

Beautifully done! A trick I use for circles is to cut a template out of card stock and then do a loose running stitch around my fabric circle. Put it on the template then pull that running stitch tight. Makes perfect circles. I then press it real good, take out the template, spray starch it then press again. Nice smooth circles every time.

Very nice! Spray starch applique is the method I first learned.

Could you post a quick version of the technique? (please and thanks!)I don't know if I could watch 11 videos on my slow speed internet!

Wow I love your enthusiasm and love how your quilt is coming along!

Looking Good! And, since it has antlers, you could name it "The Buck Stops Here", hehe

You did a great job on your applique!

Well I like it!! Great work.

It is looking good.

Great job, I really like it! I too have tried to master needle turn applique, but after buying many books and dvds I found that I'm just no good at it. Maybe I'll give the videos that you watched a try.

:)