Hi Gal
I love the Ohio star - there's something so cheerful about stars I think.
I think both options you are considering will work fine. You can even do a bit of both, if you want, and use a plain fabric and a small print of the same tone in alternating blocks. I'm doing that in the tumbling spools scrap quilt I'm making at the moment and it breaks up the background just a little.
For another alternative I did an Ohio star with a patterned fabric in the corners. There's a picture on my blog here
http://quiltthinking.wordpress.com/tag/ohio-star/
If you want to experiment, make up a few blocks and post pictures here and we can all tell you what we think. I'm sure we'll all have different points of view and then the ball will be back in your court to make the decision :-)
Good luck!