I do the same as Tartan...it works for me.

It never occurred to me to stay-stitch the edges of my quilts. I'm a hand quilter so don't know if that matters. I do a rough trim of 4-6 inches before quilting; attach my binding afterwards then trim 1/2" from my sewn binding stitches. Fold over and sew by hand to the back.

To make a homemade 1/4" mark on your machine...use blue painters tape, mole skin, or even a chunk of post it notes.....and guide your fab edge against it........I'm sure somewhere there's a tute on how to do.......

I hope other people took not of what Patricia Drew said about her method of stitching around her quilt and being able to pull up a stitch when necessary. This is a great tip for minor difficulties. I do some of this a bit differently. After quilting and before trimming I do sew around the quilt being sure that I hold the layers straight and flat as they go into and out of the machine. After examining the back of the quilt to be sure it is straight and flat I use a long ruler to trim away the excess backing and batting. Then I stitch on the binding which I make 2 1/4 inch wide. Depending on who the quilt will be gifted to determines whether I sew on the back and machine sew on the front, or, sew on the front and hand stitch on the back.

I trim the excess off the quilt sandwich and sew the edges together - usually with a longish stitch about 3/16 inch from the edge.

I also baste the raw edges of bias cut binding together before sewing it to the quilt.

That way, i only have to line up "two" edges while sewing instead of five.

I also make wider bindings - approximately 7/16 inch finished width - because that is what works well using the leftmost needle setting on my favorite mschine.

This I have done with a quilt top that has many seams at the edge (piano keys, 9 patch etc) but before making the sandwich.

I serge around all of my quilts, large or quilt-as-you-go blocks. The blocks are then zig-zagged together in rows for a throw/quilt. The serging keeps all the layers in tact. I know someone will not agree, but it is different strokes for different folks, as they say.

I don't stitch before I bind. I don't think there is any right or wrong to it, I just don't want to take the time and for my projects to do it and so far my bindings are fine.

My technique too. :)

I trim excess batting and backing then sew the edges with a wide zig-zag stitch. I've found that if I don't do this, the corners sometimes slip when I put the binding on. I use a 2 inch binding (folded in half to 1 inch) and the zig-zagged edges make folding down the binding easier. No, I don't think it adds bulkiness to the edges.