I'm sewing a log cabin quilt for the first time and need some help. No matter how I try to mix and match the log cabin borders to my HSTs, I'm still not satisfied. Somehow there are always some blocks that end up with very bad combination.

Appreciate any advice here!

are you over complicating?
log cabin's (usually) only need to have strips sorted into light and dark- lights go on 2 sides, darks the other 2...the log-cabins work...i'm a bit confused about your (half square triangles???) a log cabin block usually starts with a center square (traditionally red or yellow-the home hearth fire) then *logs* are added in a counter clockwise direction around the center square- for how ever rounds are required to make the size block you want.
and make blocks and put them aside- on a design wall if you have one- when you stand back and look you may find the ones you don't think work- work just fine- it is the values (lights and darks) that make log cabin blocks work

Sorry if I didn't make myself clear. When I mentioned HSTs, I mean that I'm using them to form into pinwheel square blocks, followed by the log cabins. I have a feeling it's because I didn't select the light/dark fabrics properly in the first place. Do the lights and darks go on opposite or alternate sides?

Do you have a specific pattern that you're making (if so, please let us know the name) or are you designing as you go?

a picture would be nice to see what you are doing.

Could we see a picture please.

Typically you would have light on two adjoining sides and darks on the other two adjoining sides. Do a search for log cabin and take a look at how they are set to give you an idea.

Here's a link to the log cabin gallery on this site. Lots of ideas!

http://www.quiltingboard.com/user_page.jsp?upnum=2203

don't look at each piece. Wait until the whole goes together then the odd/ugly/pieces you think don't work, will work. In a scrappy-style quilt, everything works as a whole even if the pieces are off. Just like the Gestalt theory, the whole is greater than the sums of the parts. It is true.

The quilt I'm working on looks like this when finished. However, I'm using a different collection of fabrics. Based on a scrappy log cabin quilt like this, is there a specific way I should arrange my strips? For eg, if I put 2 light or 2 dark fabrics adjacent to each other, can it work?

Does anyone have advice for me on how I could arrange my dark and light fabrics for a scrappy log cabin quilt?

From what I can tell in that picture, it doesn't matter. If you want them arranged with a light half and a dark half, pick two sides for dark and two for light. In the quilt in that picture they ignored light/dark and just added the strips to give it a more uniform look and not a definite light/dark. The main thing if you're going to do light/dark is ignore the colors and just sort into light/dark.

Thanks for the advice. When I pair the light/dark fabrics, does it matter if for eg I have two white strips or two red strips side by side? I think as long as I keep to the light/dark theme, the colours don't quite matter?

'Zactly! You might think it looks wrong or something in the individual block but once you get the whole thing set together and quilted it'll look great.