Excellent!! My favorite way to do needleturn appliqué for ALL the reasons you listed. One other tip is to use upholstery thread and a tapestry needle or a needle with a big eye to make nice “pilot” holes in The appliqué and background fabric so it makes for easy turning under and easy guide for where to place your needle in the background fabric. Use a contrasting thread to see where you need to snip

It looks like you are only using 2 pins to secure the appliqué to the background fabric while you are back basting? I’ve noticed that I have trouble keeping my appliqué smooth and flat against the background fabric unless I use Sew Lazy or some other fusible to secure the two pieces flat against each other. This is one of the reasons I’ve avoided traditional needle turn appliqué. For those of us trying this method for the first time, what would you recommend to prevent bunching or making the piece too loose to the background? Especially for larger pieces.