If I had to hand sew all my quilt bindings, I'd never finish them. On special quilts, I still machine stitch to the front, fold over and hand sew to the back. Most quilts though, I machine stitch to the back, fold over and machine stitch very close to the edge of the binding. I match my bobbin thread as closely as I can to the backing of the quilt. I use a 2.25" binding strip.