thanks for a great tip/ideas

My last quilt, I did the binding all by machine. I sewed the binding on the back, first. Then used a blanket stitch to sew the front on. It worked out really well.

I should clarify. I do many bindings by machine, but I do a decorative stitch on the front if it's for a child and that way, it looks great. I think the problem is when you do a straight stitch...any imperfections are very noticeable. I still fall back on my stitching it to the front and handstitching the back. It just looks the best IMHO.

I use both methods, machine only and hand-stitching. (But I enjoy hand-stitching.) To machine stitch the binding, I sew it on the back and turn the binding to the front to sew. I don't pin, just use my fingers to hold a section at a time. The key is to use the first seam as your guide. Turn the binding so it just covers the seam and use a decorative stitch along the very edge. The decorative stitch will camoflage the imperfections and using the first stitch as a guide will help to keep those to a minimum.

You could also, if you used a nice backing fabric, leave it bigger, then after quilting, trim to a scant inch wider than the wadding and top, fold in half towards the edge and press with the iron then fold in again over the top and zig zag in place. The corners take a bit of jiggery pokery to get neat but this is fine IMO for dolly quilts and other quicky projects. Otherwise I'm pernickety and always hand sew to the back. :mrgreen: :D

Eddie put a binding tutorial up here on the board a few months ago. It must work OK, because he has won ribbons doing it by machine.

Ricky Tims has a nice method, shown in detail on his DVD, Grande Finale. That DVD is available at my library, maybe yours too?

I think as quilters we worry too much about little details such as machine binding. No one that I've ever made a quilt for has ever complained about the binding. My thoughts on binding is make it co-ordinate, make it functional and long wearing and make it as neat as possible. Machine binding works for me and the quilts that I make.