King's Daughter

I've only ever put real bindings on two quilts (others were either pillowcase type or turn back to front types), and they were both this year. The first was one I made in a class, and I did the whole thing on the machine, and was not happy with it. The stitching wasn't that even and was very obvious. The second quilt is a baby quilt, made out of 20 white fabric squares decorated with fabric markers, crayons, etc (from ladies at church). After not liking the binding on the first quilt, I decided I'd have to do this one by hand, and was dreading it, because my hand stitching isn't neat and even. I watched the Schamber (?) binding video, and while I didn't do the glue, etc., I was very intrigued by the ladder stitch she used. So I decided to give that go, and LOVED it! It was very easy and is truly invisible. This still wouldn't work for those who have physical problems with handstitching, but for those who can handstitch and are concerned about their ability to make tiny, even, neat stitches, this is a lifesaver.

But...now that I've read everyone's comments, I'm concerned that it won't hold up under use and washing. I plan to try some of the machine binding tips that are given here for future quilts.

Jeannie

I machine the binding to the front and hand stitch the back. Works great for me.

South MS Quilter

I ususally hand stitch the binding on the back. However, for quick projects that I am not too particular about, I machine stitch the binding on the back side. That way I make sure there are no missed stitches. Another binding tip I find very useful is to press the binding in place before stitching. By pressing first, it is much quicker to stitch and to make sure the corners look good.

MadQuilter

On a utility quilt, I stitch the binding to the back using a modified Sharon Schamber's method (no glue). I pull the binding to the front and secure a section using the metal hair clips. Then I pick a decorative stitch like a blanket stitch or a arched satin stitch and simply stitch it down from the front. I generally use a thread color to show and the fancy stitch adds a layer of decoration. I sew the miters down by hand.

On more elegant quilts, I sew the binding down by hand on the back.

Shelley

That's most likely true at the 'big' shows. This was a small county fair and the judge did not like machine topstitched binding. It was her 'thing', and bindings in general seemed to be the thing that determined blue from red. They all have their pet peeves!!

Shelley

One more thing. For those of you that 1) use a longarmer and 2) don't want to deal with attaching the binding to the front, check with your longarmer to see if she can do it with the longarm. There is a technique were we can attach the binding to the front of the quilt with the longarm. No wrestling with the quilt under the home machine. I've done it on about a dozen quilts now, and it's pretty slick. More and more of us are learning how to do this. It's worth an 'ask', especially if you have trouble with wrestling with an entire quilt.

Eddie

All of the bindings that I've done on quilts have been by machine and I use is called Double French Fold technique. Once I stitch the binding to the front, I fold it over to the back and stitch-in-the-ditch along the front edge of the binding so that the needle just catches the edge of the binding on the back. I don't have the patience for hand-sewing, so machine stitch everything.

ScubaK

I am gong to agree with this one!!!
Kirsten

kluedesigns

AQS is always ahead of the game in this area, they were the first to award best in show to a Machine Quilted Quilt and boy did that cause a fight in the quilting community.

Dkm

I like sitting at night watching tv and doing the hand stitching on the binding. I have also used the sewing from the back and top stitching on the front. I think the main thing to think about is how the quilt is used and what look you want. I made a quilt for my mother in law(who was sick) and she picked out the hand sewn binding. I was so surprised, because I take great care in my work. So again the use of the quilt comes to play in your decision.