I’m always impatient when I get to the binding because I feel like the quilt is already done, and yet it’s not.
Machine sewing is stronger than hand sewing. Having said that, I know people are going to disagree with me, but that’s what I’ve found. I’m not sure from what you wrote if you want to continue hand sewing or would consider machine sewing, but I get my best looking binding when I machine sew the binding to the front and then hand sew the binding to the back (but in order to save time I’ve learned a method where I machine sew the back and then the front, which I’ve gotten to come out almost as good as the other way).
I like Peckish’s tip about not pressing the binding in half. Never occurred to me, but seems like a good idea now that I see it.