I have tons of scraps and fat quarters that I've had for a LONG time and never used them for anything and I thought I'd get rid of some of this fabric by making a scrappy log cabin. I've seen some gorgeous ones on this board :)

My question is...do all of the "hearth" blocks (your first 2" square in the middle of the block) have to be the same color in every block? Should they always be red?

The story about the Log cabin is that the middle block is the "light of the cabin" You can make it anyway you want. There are no set rules.

I have wondered this also. Glad you asked the question! Now what colors are you going to use as the first two block-I'm really interested!

I just finshed three scrappy log cabin quilts. None have red centers. I try to get some continuity in the center square. This is where I use some of the muslin tone on tone prints. Or make it a dark square that is in the general theme color of the quilt. It gives the eye a place to rest in the overall business of the rest of the fabrics. I have actually never used red for the center. But it really makes no difference at all .
I do seperate light and dark so I can have one side of the block light and the other dark it gives great final design block placement a whole lot of fun.

Click on the link and then

http://www.google.com/images?q=googl...ls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1016&bih=557

type in the search box
scrappy log cabins

take a look and see which ones you like best :D:D:D

I usually use either red or gold (the fire in the hearth thing) but you can use anything you want.

The center squares don't have to be red, but when making a scrappy log cabin I do try to use the same basic colored centers for one bit of unity in an otherwise very colorful scrappy quilt. I once made a scrappt log cabin quilt as a wedding present and made yellow centers to represent the "love light" in the young couple's home. They loved it.

I have made them with yellow, black and red. Not always with the same fabric, but I do stay in the same color family.
The only one I have a picture of is my avator.

I made four log cabins last year, one with black, red, green and brown centers, and loved them all.

The centers don't have to be red - they can be anything you want.

I'm working on a scrappy log cabin at the moment. I didn't co-ordinate the centers. My "consistency" or "rest for the eyes" was in my color combination - the dark logs are the same color family.

If I did a truly scrappy quilt, I would probably choose a color from one of these; light/mid yellow, orange, light/mid red. (I lean more towards orange).