judith ann

For me doing the binding by hand is my favorite part of making a quilt.

WMUTeach

I am love the hand sewing of bindings. I learned to do had work when I was very young it is just instinctual now to pick up that needle and hide those stitches. But I understand. I am not crazy about other parts of quilting, so I understand.

Shorebird

THANKS - but about the only hand work I still do is sewing the binding down,.....I find it does relax me, and I like the look of it much better than when sewn down by machine,.

Aurora

I love all hand stitching and have recently taken up hand embroidery again. I am also knitting more often, it helps keep my joints lubricated and working smoothly.

rebeljane

I love hand sewing the binding as it is the last stage of completion.

LynnVT

That is a cool system with a nice neat result. I usually enjoy hand sewing, but I've also discovered Susie's Magic Binding from a link I found here. It gives an accent color along the edge of the binding and is quick and secure. http://www.freequiltpatterns.info/fr...ic-binding.htm

Having raised four daughters, all I can say here is, "Ladies, please be nice to each other!"

Sewnoma

Oh, now that looks very interesting! Thanks for posting, I'm going to have to look for one of those feet and give it a try!

I machine sew every binding; if I had to hand-sew I would never get any done. Quilt police aside, nobody seems to mind - non-quilters never notice the difference, and my fellow quilters have given me ribbons at the fair for my machine-sewn quilts, so thankfully not everybody pooh-poohs machine binding!

I have several quilts from both of my grandmothers (both of whom were avid quilters) and once I became a quilter too I examined their quilts in detail. I was a little surprised to notice that neither grandmother hand-sewed their bindings. One never used separate binding at all, she just wrapped the backing over the top on every single quilt. And I never, ever noticed until I became a quilter myself.

Makes me feel a lot more free in my quilting. There's no "right" or "wrong" way...just ways that work and ways that don't work. I wish I had taken up quilting when either or both of my grandmothers were still living, I wonder how many tips and short cuts they could have taught me...

WTxRed

I end up machine binding the majority of my quilts. I don't 'mind' hand binding but the dang arthritis in my hands does!

Weezy Rider

Binding the quilt isn't interesting - it's a necessary evil - so I machine bind. Then I have more time to play with fabrics and design for the next thing.

I do have a Pfaff felling foot. I thought it would help with flat felled seams, but it's easier too make a felled seam manually.

Michellesews

I have been doing this for years but I just use my straight stitch foot. The secret I discovered is to fold the binding into equal thirds and crease before you ever begin sewing it to the back. This tells you exactly where your needle should stitch in order that when you turn the binding over to stitch it down on the front of the quilt, you can land spot on, on the first line of stitching. I use a stiletto to pull the fabric around and take my time. I have bound hundreds of quilts this way, perfect every time!