Since most of the quilts I've made to date went to Quilts For Kids, they have been completely machine stitched as that is what QFK requests. I've done a couple where I hand stitched the back but did not enjoy the process and, frankly, I think the machine stitching is a lot more secure. I can make it look nice with the hand stitches, but I don't think the stops and starts that you need to do by hand make the binding very secure.