My New Favorite Way of Joining Binding Strips

On my wool bird applique quilt, I tried a new way of joining my binding strips.  I don't know where I saw it, but it's probably nothing new to you.  I guess I'm just late to the party.

Overlap the edges at a 90-degree angle, right sides together.  Then draw a diagonal line that goes from the upper-left corner of the bottom strip to the lower-right corner of the top strip.  

You have to peek to see where the corner is on the bottom strip, but that's easy to do.  All you need is a straight-edge, no messing around with a 45-degree angle on a ruler.

Stitch on the line; trim excess fabric to 1/4".

Open it up, press it, and admire the nice straight line made by the two strips of binding.

SO easy. 

Now I'll show you how I've done it for my entire previous quilting life.  I found this in some (dumb) book when I was just learning to quilt.

Cut the edges on a 45-degree angle.  Be sure you cut the other edge of the strip the exact same direction, so the lines are parallel.

Join the 45-degree angles.  But don't do it like this.  You know that when you sew a 1/4" seam, those two strips aren't going to be aligned properly when opened up.

Follow the picture in the (dumb) book and leave little tails on each side.  Looks good to me.  Sew a 1/4" seam.

It doesn't look so good now, does it?  Criminy.  Rip it out and try different size tails.

After much trial and error on my quilts, over many years, I finally figured out the perfect overlap.  I guarantee this makes a straight strip.

But isn't my new favorite way much easier?