If I understand you will be using the red chicken fabric in the center of the star? Will you be fussy cutting that? I think you are going to have more of the effect of a white center and red points depending on the scale of your star/center.
I like the swirly stitch sort of fabric option best. Maybe instead of inserting the color (if you fussy cut those chickens) into the block, maybe if you sash with the background and then something like Friendship Stars or Shoo-fly sort of the cornerstones from the accent color.