Everything wooly and how I figure out what the heck to do in a wide border

This morning I went to the applique group to get the skinny on wool. Oh my! So much to learn just to get started. Procuring wool (from thrift shop clothing finds...watch out for little holes and bugs) taking the garments apart (on the deck, because of all the fuzz and lint) felting the wool (in the washer? on the stove top? in the oven!?) and how to prep your pieces for applique (fusibles vs glue and pins). Some of the members had finished work that was so awesome it made me wonder if I am going to be able to do this. The tiny stitches and little pieces were beautiful. Then we had a primer on dying. Onion skins and casseroles. Its a bit of a foreign language so far, but I think I'll get it if I can see and do it. I'm a fairly visual learner, so maybe I can find something on You tube! Anyway, it looks like fun hand work, and I'm up for a challenge.
When I got home, I worked on the custom quilt from yesterday and finished the interior section. The quilt has 10 inch wide borders, so I set out to divide and conquer.

Ready for border quilting.

This is a mock-up of the star for the corners.
I outlined and quilted several of these in the quilt center.

First, I drew a bunch of mock-ups and settled on repeating the diamonds from the piecing. I subtracted 1/2 inch from the border (to leave the space for binding to be applied), leaving 9 1/2 inches to work with. With my handy chalk pencil, I drew a line 4 3/4 inches from the inner edge to find the center of the border. Taking off 10 inches from each end for a corner treatment left me 54 inches to fill. I could make 9 equal diamonds 6 inches long, so I divided the line in 6 inch increments and drew the first diamond. From there, I could tick off 6 inch increments on both outside lines and just connect the dots!

Connecting the dots from top line to bottom line

And likewise from bottom to top!

This is what you get.

I added another line 1 1/4 inches from the diamond row above and below. This will give me another space for quilting.

Voila! The border is now in manageable sections.

No fancy tools; just chalk and a ruler!

I forgot to show you a picture of the vintage quilt I did last week. It has been washed and is now in use in the office on the day bed.