I completely agree with Madquilter on the layout of the blocks. I would use red and then pick up the brown with a much lighter tan shade letting the dark in the blocks be the only real contrast. There are a lot of interesting TOT tans that could be used with a lightly patterned red. To break up the picture monotony, I would either use the pictures as a center of a much larger block, or use as a single block with an additional full patterned block around them. Did that make sense? In other words, I would do more than just add sashing to the pictures.