QuiltE

Exactly what I was thinking!
It will disappear well ... and any oopsies out of the ditch will almost disappear.

As for the sequence ... not knowing the size of your runner, but somewhat guessing, because of the probably size of the stars .... I would probably SITD both sides of the narrow border, then go straight to the stars.

Doing each singly would be fine. Although, I might not, especially if I was not fully set on what I was going to do for the quilting. I'd probably do the inner star section of both first, then assess whether I am sticking with SITD or what sections I am leaving open or if I wanted to do some other top stitching, then continue on with the next section.

Lovely runner .... have fun with your quilting and taking it across the finish line!

Jingle

Very pretty table runner.