I do hand stitching on my quilts but table runners, wall hangings etc I will machine stitch. Another hint to avoid all the pins on your binding - use a narrow heat and bond tape and press it on before you turn your binding to the back of your quilt remove the paper turn it to the back and press - binding lays nice and flat with no pins. Make sure you do not put it all the way to the fold so you can easily hand sew your binding without running into the sticky stuff. Sometimes I cheat on my small stuff and never stitch it because the heat and bond holds it so well you would never know.