You have got lots of great ideas and I think others on the board are steering you right. There are several people on the web with lots of crazy quilt advice. ..There are also good examples of various stitch combinations, regular embroidery and ribbon embroidery. You might get some ideas for this site:
http://cqmagonline.com/. Beautiful piece already. I love crazy quilting--both the antique variety and newer styles using all the bling and techniques available today. It's a no-rules way of creating with fabric and almost anything else.