Friends, I now have about 800 blocks collected. I have 19 completed quilts, 13 are out being quilted, and there are 11 tops waiting for quilters. Several quilters have offered to take a few tops, but I still need about 15-20 more to be spoken for. Again, please let me know if you are able to quilt for this project. Tomorrow I have another work day scheduled; I'll let you know the status of everything after that.

Tonight I have a large number of pictures to share. I'll start with blocks that I received from Deanna K of the Christian Women's Quilting Class in West Virginia. Thank you so much!

Kay A of Nevada sent three blocks using a lovely maroon fabric that has water drops on it - she chose the fabric because it reminded her of tears. Thank you, Kay, for your thoughts and your lovely blocks:

I also have photos of two quilts completed by Carolyn Moore in Blacksburg. I sent her 12 blocks and the batting and backing; she stitched an additional 12 blocks to intersperse and then assembled and quilted them beautifully. Carolyn, I can't thank you enough!

And then, finally, I received the package of blocks that Christine collected from the HGTV block lottery. She collected a total of 58 (!) blocks, and assembled one of the tops. I am so grateful to Christine for organizing this collection, and for every one of the quilters who participated. Thank you ALL so very much! (I've listed names and states with each photo.) Take a look at this terrific assortment:

From Karen B in Kansas:

From Susan M in Texas:

From Terri M in Texas:

From Valerie H in New Jersey:

From Sharon S in Illinois:

From Shelby O in Ohio:

From Linda B in Mississippi:

From Bev S in Colorado:

From Pat H in New York:

From Diana B in South Carolina:

From Nancy R in Ohio:

From Lisa H in Texas:

From Lisa P in New York:

From Debbie S in Wisconsin:

From Cathy S in California:

From "Charmingsister" (I only have her HGTV screen name) in Massachusetts:

From Barb S in West Virginia:

Finally, Cathy in Texas, an LSU alum, forwarded an interesting article that I thought some of you would find interesting:

from the New Orleans Times Picayune Wed. Sept. 5~

Blanket statement: LSU students pay tribute to fallen Hokies

BATON ROUGE -- LSU Student Government President Cassie Alsfeld is a Metairie native, but the footprint of her family stretches across the city's metropolitan area.

From Uptown New Orleans to Algiers, Alsfeld's family was affected by Hurricane Katrina. So when the Virginia Tech shootings unfolded April 16, Alsfeld immediately felt a need to reach out to the Hokies' student body.

And Saturday's prime-time LSU-Virginia Tech matchup seemed like a perfect fit.

"They had a horrible tragedy, and sports seems to be the binding tie between two people," she said. "All we can try to do to help each other out, and I think that's what football tends to do."

The president of LSU's nearly 30,000 students pitched several memorial ideas -- a special tailgate for Virginia Tech students, a fundraiser for the school and a T-shirt tribute sale -- but LSU and Virginia Tech officials insisted on a smaller-scale event.

"I can respect that they just want to play the game," she said.

So the LSU student body responded with a gesture that's unique to south Louisiana.

About 25 students, along with a handful of football players and other volunteers, gathered to stitch a mural-like quilt, measuring nearly 9 feet tall with different fabric square patches that symbolize Louisiana culture -- a hot sauce bottle, a fleur-de-lis and a crawfish just to name a few.

At the center of the wall-hanging quilt is Virginia Tech's purple-and-orange "VT" logo along with the phrase "Stitch by stitch, LSU Tigers mend the Hokies' Hearts" and the names of the 32 victims.

The quilt will be presented to the Virginia Tech alumni at their party Saturday, which will be held at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse on LSU's campus. The idea for the quilt originally was proposed by Louisiana's secretary of state office.

The quilt will be on display in the area around LSU's Student Union today and Thursday. LSU's student government is encouraging students and members of the community to sign the quilt.

Three of the project's biggest quilters were a trio of 320-pound-plus offensive linemen -- Herman Johnson, Ciron Black and Carnell Stewart.

"We stitched a few squares. I think I did a hot sauce bottle," said Johnson, whose mother Karen works at the secretary of state's office. "It's more like a token from us as a student body to another student body that went through something. We care and we know what happened. We want to try to make things better."

Black, who stitched the fleur-de-lis square, said the countless times he pierced himself with the needle was worth the few hours he and his teammates spent quilting.

"We got in there and it's not as easy as it looks. Oh man, me and Herm had some trouble needling and threading and all that stuff. I was terrible at it," Black said. "Basically, if you mess up one time, and you can go on for an hour, and if you mess up in one spot, you have to undo all of it. I did that like three times."

Stewart said he's proud that football can help bring people together. The downside, he said, is that unfortunate events -- like a natural disaster or massacre -- shouldn't be the catalyst for people having to reach out to others.

"Sometimes it always takes something wrong to happen for everybody to come together," Stewart said. "I had family members that it took for somebody to die for them to come closer."

Stewart said the gesture, though simple, is more personal than other ideas. The River Ridge native, who prepped at John Curtis, said he got the hang of sewing after a while. The crawfish and Saints helmet on the quilt were his work.

"A lot of people don't want you to forget what happened, because that was a big event at Virginia Tech just like down in New Orleans," he said. "We understand what happened but being reminded of it every day just brings you down -- a lot."