I have serged the edges of my quilt before binding it and it was the most perfectly squared quilt I had done.

I always hand baste.

I like the sergered edges but have hand basted

I machine baste around the edges oft the quilt befoe
I put on the binding.

ef :)

I machine baste with the longest stitch I have.

I'm surprised at how many people baste, surge, zig zag, etc. I never have. Never even heard of it til now. Since I've never done it this way I don't think I'm going to start now. I like the way I do it. It works for me and I"m happy with it. I quilt to about 1/4 inch from edge, then add binding to the top, trim excess away, fold to back and machine sew binding down from the front SITD method. I use a ton of pins and I like the way I do it.

I sew the binding on first before trimming anything , that way I can be sure that the binding is full enough. The judges don't like binding that is empty. I never baste.

I had never heard of basting b4 binding until I took a quilt to a long-armer and she did it - so much nicer! Now I machine baste each side after I quilt the border.

I also serge the edges. I find that its easier to sew the binding and that it comes out looking better.

This is a good way too - thanks for your input as I might try this one for my little grandson's quilt and will be a lot faster than hand stitching the binding on the back side.