If you are binding a small item (like a Pot Holder) you can get by with a straight across seam, but if you are doing a quilt if you do straight across, eventually it will pucker and you have a mess. A diagonail seam and if possible make your binding strip diagonal across the fabric. If you start corner to corner on a 36 inch piece of fabric, you can get enough binding for a small quilt, like a lap quilt or if carefully cut you might be able to do a twin size quilt.