I most definitely press my binding! I generally stitch it to the back and bring it to the front. I guess because that is the way someone at my LQS store taught me to do it when I first started quilting. I don't think it makes much difference one way, or the other. It is your quilt, after all. If I doing a wall-hanging, or something smaller, I will often times use one of my machines decorative stitches. When I am doing a large quilt, I like to machine stitch to the back and hand stitch when I bring it to the front. A very good excuse to watch DVDs while I am doing it. And, actually, that is what I should be doing right now instead of playing on the computer. I have a Xmas quilt to bind that I want to use on our bed this season.