Originally Posted by dungeonquilter

The red center was to represent the warmth of the hearth of the home. Some also used yellow.
However, modern quilts use any colour.
It's your quilt, and you can do what ever you want.
A rectangle won't necessarily make a rectangle block if you leave off the firs log, which is normally another square the same size as the center square. Just add your first log on the long side of the rectangle.