It depends. Most of the time I sew the binding to the front, trim then turn to back and hand sew. If I need to get a charity quilt out fast (emergency request) I sew the binding to the back, and machine stitch to the front. Occassionally I use the self binding method for charity quilts. For those that don't know self binding is leaving the backing larger than the front (1" I think). Then fold to edge of quit, fold again to front and machine stitch. In this method you are supposed to leave a little extra batting (1/4"???).