I've seen a lovely scrappy quilt the other day where the feature fabrics were cut into 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch pieces. Then they took a solid white (or white on white) and cut that down to 2 1/2" squares. Each rectangle had a solid attached.
These pieces are attached in rows. One row starts with a reactangle, the next with a square to shift the pattern. You can do a lot with color play.