I hand sew. I did one small wall hanging the other way and I feel that it put a strain on my sewing machine, so I went back to my regular way. It takes longer, but I think I do not mind.

I have been making quilts to donate. On the ones for kids I machine sewed the bindings on. I think it works well as those quilts may go through more use and wear than ones the adults will get. I was able to make more by using the machine.
Otherwise I will continue to hand sew bindings.

I machine stitch all my bindings. My binding is 2 and 1/2 inches folded and pressed. I sew it on the back 1/4 inch and miter corners and the bring it to the front and machine stick. I either pin a lot or glue with washable glue. I did not pay all that money for my machines to sit and hand stitch. I have some bumps on my fingers from arthritis from sewing all these 61 yrs. I tried it on one of my quilts and it takes a long time.

I hand stitch mine to the back I like the way it looks and I am never in a hurry

I machine stitch mine to the back, flip it to the front and machine stitch again.

I don't hand sew anything unless there's no other possible way.

I do it by machine; back first then decorative on the front.

Another machine sewer here. I sew the binding to the back with a 1/4" seam, mitre the corners then flip over to the front. I don't pin or glue the front binding down, I simply sew nice and slowly using my seam ripper point to nudge the binding neatly under the walking foot. I then sew very close to the edge. I don't know why but my mitre corners come out much better this way rather than when I hand stitch.

If i hand sewed a quilt binding, I would not be able to use my hands for days without pain. Heck, sometimes piecing is hard on them. I always machine stitch. I sew the binding on the front, flip it over, then use a decorative stitch on the front (usually a feather stitch). I have been using a 2 1/2" binding but there is always some extra on the back when I use warm and natural batting (pretty thin). My next quilt will use 2 1/4", and I think that will work well.

Pam

I hand sewed until I figured out how to do it by machine. While I like the look of hand stitched, I don't think a machine stitched binding detracts from the overall look. I personally think it will outlast a hand stitched binding as well. After quite a bit of practice I think I can do a pretty decent job with my machine and it lets me move on to my next quilt more quickly :-)

I do both methods, it depends upon the quilt and how much time I have. For important gift quilts or favorite ones I intend to keep, I hand stitch the binding because that looks the best. For charity quilts I usually machine bind. My machine stitched bindings have gotten much better, so I am not as reluctant to machine sew the binding on now.