if i have put a lot of work into a quilt, then i go ahead and sew the binding onto the backing by hand. several quilts which were made with larger pieces, and not as labor intensive/$ intensive i do/have folded the binding to the front and used a zig zag stitch to sew it to the front. if you are real careful about just putting the binding on top of the sewing on the back, (i use a lot of straight pins), it turns out very nice.