The only thing I can think of she was talking about borders. Then yes length wise is great no seams and very stable so no waves. Binding though you are absolutely right and you don't even need a full 1/2 yard just 5 strips should do it.

I can't tell any difference in seaming binding or not. Why is it a problem other then a few minutes to sew a long length? I have purchased ready made custom binding and it was seamed. I can see buying lengths of fabric to use only for binding and having lengths of binding from just that fabric to use for many quilts.

Geri B - you made me laugh out loud!!

Thank you so much for this calculator link. It is now in my favorites.

Thankfully, the ladies at my JoAnn's strive to save me money when I buy fabric--cutting binding on the long length does not save me money.

Oops! You forgot about the other two sides of the quilt. And it is added, not multiplied. You need to take length + width and double that. You have to add some for all the seams in the binding, and another width-of-binding for the overlap at the end. Each strip gets width-of-binding taken off of it for seaming.

Many people don't like having "unnecessary" seams in their binding and would rather have on continuous strip.That's probably why she suggested what she did. My DD had the same thing happen when she asked for help figuring amount(this was at a LQS not JA). IT's a matter of preference. Had she asked me I would have shown her how to make her binding using the width of fabric 'cause I don't like waste and I think buying the full length is wasteful. My preference

It is sometimes nice to cut sashing and borders on the lengthwise grain if you do so at the beginning of the project. However, it is customary to cut binding on the crosswise grain or the bias grain because you can easily control the stretch. If you join these pieces with a bias seam they are almost undetectable. Someone gave a link to a chart for estimating how much you need to bind various sized quilts. I tuck it in the back of my wallet just for reference. You must be careful of the 'knowledge' clerks in fabric stores have. Much of the time it is very little.

At our Joanns they are told they cannot help you estimate fabrics needs. Guess that keeps from having unhappy customers with excess fabric, just unhappy customers because they need help. ;)

One of my local Joann's did have a quilter at the cutting table, a MALE quilter, even, but he fully retired about a year ago. I still bump into him there sometimes, shopping. I never really ask them for advice, though, I usually have a pretty good idea of what I'm up to when I'm there. (I have a stubborn streak!) I miss my guy though, he would always stop to chat about quilting with me. :)