Well, this sounds like fun. So I'm thinking what you are describing are likely to be flour sack or 30's prints, but we've had posies and roses and all sorts of florals every decade, some of which looked vintage when they were new. Can you find search around a bit on the those terms (flour sack, 30s fabric) and see if that is similar or if we have something else to work with?
Flour sack/30s style fabrics typically go together well because of their scale, collection of colors, and values make them easy to work with as a group. They tend to lend themselves to being paired with crisp white or pastel solids.
There are a couple of theories in scrap quilts, one is looks don't matter, I'm making a blanket to keep someone warm and I want to get rid of fabric. The other is that looks do matter and I'm trying to use my leftover fabric in the best possible way. They aren't entirely mutually exclusive but in the end, you get what you get and you had the choice at the start.
In addition, I say the "quilt we makes depends on the fabric we have" so I have different design considerations when I'm using a stack of swapped 10" (layer cake sized) squares, or whether I have actual scraps saved from garment construction, or yardage. When you say "some of the bigger pieces" is that bigger or smaller than a fat quarter?
I mostly work with scraps or at least collections of fabrics, which is sort of funny because when I started quilting I had never seen a scrap quilt I liked but was all about the planned quilts as I call them now. The book Scrap Quilting by Judy Martin really changed my eyes and mind to what was possible. The book is out of print and the instructions are dated now, but the pictures and discussions well worth a used copy!
http://www.judymartin.com/meet-judy.cfm
https://www.amazon.com/Scrap-Quilts-.../dp/096029709X
Some people really like Bonnie Hunter's projects --
https://quiltville.blogspot.com/
There are a number of us here on the boards who do a lot of donation projects, and many of those are scrap based. Can spend a lot of time getting a lot of ideas on projects here, so much so I've given up magazines because I get more ideas from the people here! Usually doesn't take me peeking in on more than 10 threads on the pictures forum and I've got at least one new idea
