Thank you to all who responded. I love the applique suggestion but sounds time consuming.
MawMawB, thank you for the site with lots of suggestions which included the one done by Cat-on-a-mat. That's the method I was hoping I might find someone had done.
Cat-on-a-mat, I have some concern about cutting into the hand stitching. Will those fall apart and how did you secure those until stitched to the border? Your border is fantastic. I would appreciate any suggestions you care to share on getting that to be a nice straight edge to sew a border onto.