I've tied quilts since I was a little girl so for what it's worth here's what I do.
First of all I sandwich and pin. I use colored tape and mark my ruler with at L at either 2 1/2 or 3 or 3 1/2" never any bigger. I cut lengths of yarn or thread about 6" longer than the width of my blanket and using my marked ruler as a guide, I start at one corner and go across. Then I rethread my needle and once again using my ruler as a guide I go across. I repeat this until I get to the other end, taking the pins out as I go. This will give your ties an nice evenly spaced look. Then I sew my binding on. After that I cut the strings, then knot and trim them. The last thing I do is to hand stitch the back of the binding down. Here's a picture of one I did for my brother. The reason I bind before actually knotting the quilt is because the knotting can somtimes cause a little puckering which is a good look but not so helpful when trying to bind the edges. So, Sandwich, Stitch, Bind, then Tie.