A confession and a plea for help

I hate hand sewing. That is my confession. I mean I HATE hand sewing. If my hubby loses a button he 'jokes' that he will just kiss the shirt goodbye. Well it is SORT OF a joke. He at least has to get used to not wearing that shirt for a VERY LONG TIME. It takes me a long time to feel really guilty about not sewing on a button and returning the shirt to him. I finally do it. Oh and scouting...gimme a break. It is bad enough you have to cart your kids all over the place to meetings, go to meetings yourself, take hikes you don't want to take and carve and paint pinewood cars but then they expect you to sew the dern patches on their shirts!!! I think that should be the FIRST thing scouts learn - sewing on patches. By yourself. (I usually did them by machine anyway).

The few quilts that I have made have been the turn method (does that make sense?). So no binding but ya know the opening after you turn the quilt?? Well let's just say I haven't made a quilt like that since my mother passed away. She was always great with a needle and thread and would hand sew the opening closed for me. Go ahead, roll your eyes. I think one quilt was closed by my mother in law that was visiting. She is still alive but lives too far away and is almost blind. No help there anymore.

So I am moving on to quilts that require binding. This first one I am taking to the longarm quilter on Friday. They are also going to attach the binding. At this point I think I am going to have them handsew the binding on the backside. My thought was this; my daughter is supposed to take this quilt with her to college in September. If I don't have them do it now, will it be done by the time she leaves?? Unlikely. I think they really need to be done by hand, don't they? How frustrating to try to do it by machine to have the binding shift just a smidge and you miss catching it. Then what?

I took home economics from the 7th grade all the way through the 12th grade. I loved it. I am sure I must have had to hand sew in that time. Did I have mono and miss a month of class? I don't know where this aversion came from. I don't care for embroidery either. Counted cross stitch is okay. Stamped cross stitch is okay. They both show me exactly where to put the needle. I have even considered getting a Yo Yo maker since they show you exactly where to put the needle. The thought of doing them all on my own was mind boggling and never appealed to me.

I have looked online some for binding directions. I have looked in quilting magazines. The directions that they give are for sewing the binding on the front side, with that cool little trick at each corner. I have yet to try that since I was in no way prepared to do anything with it once it was turned to the back. The detailed directions stop there. Everything just goes on to say stitch the binding on the back side. Uhhhhhhhh, thanks so much!! THAT is exactly where I need help! With pictures would be even better! Why is it assumed that everyone knows how to do that next step? Tell me I am not the only person out there that does not know how to sew the binding to the back of the quilt. Lie if you have to.

Any chance my new machine has an attachment for attaching the binding with a blind stitch so that it will look handsewn??? I never could figure out the blind hem stitch on the machine I have now. They have the fabric folded about 4 different ways and then put it under this special foot and I am saying "HUH???"

Any suggestions? Any offers to handstitch my bindings? My hubby would love it if you would sew some buttons on too. :D