Originally Posted by GagaSmith

I actually enjoy sewing the binding by hand. It's probably the only hand sewing I do and I find it relaxing.

Originally Posted by CanoePam

Not all of us are physically able to do hand stitching, so I get pretty irritated when someone implies I don't care about a quilt I am making if I don't hand stitch the binding. The arthritis and carpal tunnel (both!) in my hands just won't let me do quality hand work, and I am not going to do lousy hand work. I sew my bindings to the back, flip them over, and then do a decorative stitch to attach the front. My favorite is a feather stitch, but I have used others. Sewn this way they are robust and easy to care for. Most people comment very positively on the decorative stitching too.

Note the main charity I quilt for, Quilts for Kids, requires machine sewing on bindings because it stands up to the hospital washing machines.

Pam

Originally Posted by SweatyPie

To me, the quilt is instantly worth less when someone doesn't care enough to handstitch the binding. I know others may differ, but that's how I feel on the topic.

Originally Posted by Shelbie

I have always wondered why it was "expected" that "real" quilts would have the binding stitched by hand. For most of us, everything on a quilt is done by machine. Why all of a sudden at the finish line, are we suppose to hand stitch? I am quite capable of handstitching, I have the skills and the physical ability to do so but it just has never made sense to me. No one that I have ever gifted a quilt to has ever even mentioned the binding. It would take several hours to handstitch the binding on a king sized quilt, it wouldn't be as strong and no one on my list of quilt receivers would even notice or care so I'm not doing it! I'd rather use that extra time to start a new quilt.