Barbie

I usually do mine by hand. I use that time for watching a movie or just watching TV. On one occassion, I stitched the binding on a Christmas tree skirt on the machine. It is just whatever floats your boat.

canuckninepatch

I had always done the traditional "sew the binding on the front, flip to the back and handsew", until my sister showed me a technique that they use at her church for charity quilts using the backing flipped to the front. You have to make sure you end the quilting stitches nicely and securely at the edge of the quilt since they will not be covered by a separate binding on the backing side. When you are finished all your quilting, you cut the backing one inch bigger all the way around. I like to cut the batting about 1/2" bigger than the edge of the quilt top so that the binding is nice and plump. Then you fold the edge of the backing in to meet the edge of the quilt top, and fold again to make the binding. Then you topstitch this edge on the front side of the quilt, and it looks beautiful - especially for baby quilts which are going to be washed more frequently. Hope this is clear. Any one else use this method for some of their quilts?

Grace MooreLinker

I machine stitch the back side turn to the front and use a blanket or some other pretty stitch on the front. But there are a lot that I know still like the hand sewn. I have tremors so I leave to much DNA on things I try to hand stitch.. But everyone does their's the way they like which is
what keeps our world from being boring..

jeanneb52

I do it because I find it soothing to sit and do a bit of handwork...

Ginny Trimmer

I just love hand binding, It gives me a chance to pray for the person I am giving the quilt too. If the quilt is a prayer quilt from our group at Church this to is a time to pray for the the unknown receiver of the quilt. I find it relaxing. I work in a quilt shop and the owner, who has her quilts machine quilted, always brings it to me to finish....I have done it on the machine too, especially for table toppers or runners, since they will be washed more often. I do agree that is is a matter of choice. Don't sweat the small stuff....Enjoy the process.

Ruby the Quilter

I had always done it all by machine - then read in a magazine that finishing by hand stitching it on the back is the best way. I now do that while watching TV with my DH in the evening. With all the fancy stitches on my machine I have started doing the blanket stitch and it looks nice. So from now on - it will depend on the quilt and my mood.


Love the idea of using that time to pray for who ever is getting the quilt- especially for a new baby.

betsey

I've tried machine sewing the binding several times, and it's just not good. I much prefer hand binding. I do it at night watching TV, and find it claming and relaxing. I like hand work, and have done binding for others who don't care to do it. I suppose if my machine binding technique was better I would do it more often. Personal oreference I guess.

angelarose

Same here.
Angela

MillieH

I do a lot of baby quilts. These are washed often, and machine stitched bindings hold up better. In fact, I'm now reparing the hand-sewn bindings on two baby quilts someone else made for my twin grandsons. The boys are only 9 mos. old--and the bindings are already coming loose.

incoming2me

When I do QAYG (the "Shortcut Crazy Quilt" construction method http://www.crazyshortcutquilts.com - not the block design)
I machine stitch the binding.
On traditional quilts I've typically hand-stitched the binding on the back.