Judy Loope's works are on display in the "Stitch Attitude" exhibit. — Miranda Adkins, So Salem

When someone says "quilting," it generally brings thoughts of old-fashioned little ladies sitting around a sewing room stitching symmetrical squares on a large piece of thick fabric. Well, former East and South Salem Elementary art teacher Judy Loope isn't old-fashioned, and the quilts she makes don't belong on a bed or in a trunk. Her creations usually hang proudly on a clean wall for lots of folks to see.

A gallery of her textiles and mixed-media quilts, "Stitch Attitude" is on display at the Gallery on the James in Buchanan through Oct. 4.

Her works are made of mostly synthetic fabric along with almost any other art material she can get a needle through. Her mother and grandmother did a lot of traditional quilting, so she knew the basics, but she started quilting in the late 1980s and early '90s after making her son a quick throw together "blankie."

"It was one of those moments where you're cutting out little pieces of fabric and then wait a minute. Why am I following someone else's pattern -- I'm an art teacher!" the Longwood College graduate said. She attended there after graduating from Andrew Lewis High in 1969.

She embraced her new hobby as a hobby, in her spare time as a creative outlet, until she retired six to seven years ago. That's when she got serious. She set up an official studio in her sunroom, and got to work.

Loope's husband, John, has supported her new career wholeheartedly. When Judy goes to new craft stores or to faraway art shows, he researches a fly fishing spot and finds a place to entertain himself while she's doing her thing.

So far, she has shown her quilts at galleries in Scotland, England, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Colorado, and all over Virginia.

"I think that's probably a dream of anyone that's in the arts field," she said. "Being an arts education person, my career was in teaching, not in the business side of things. So I'm having to learn a lot."

So far, she's been having a lot of luck getting herself noticed. Sam Pettway, CEO of Boardwalk Consulting, a company in Atlanta, contacted her to do commission pieces as awards for the nonprofits that his company works with. Some have gone to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, to the Susan G. Komen breast cancer organization, and to food banks and child services. One even went to Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin -- it depicts a jovial character with a large flower on her lapel, just like Franklin usually wears.

Loope has also made fast friends with a British textile artist, Kathy Colledge. That's how some of her work has landed in England. She and her husband even visited Europe for the first time recently because of her quilting shows.

"Most people think of quilts as grandma's work going on the bed ... Now we're seeing more and more of them as more of a fine art than a bed art," Loope said.

Salem artist has connection to comedian Jeff Dunham

Even a ventriloquist is left speechless sometimes...and that describes Jeff Dunham after his Aug. 16 "Spark of Insanity" performance at the Roanoke Civic Center, a Global Spectrum-managed facility.

Needless to say his first visit to the Roanoke Civic Center was an evening he will remember for years to come. Not only was he held captive by the thunderous roar of laughter from the near-capacity audience, but on his encore performance with Bubba J, the audience basically mouthed the whole act, causing Dunham to pause, laugh and have Bubba J say: "It's pretty bad when the audience knows your lines better than you do!"

After concluding his show Mr. Dunham was taken to his dressing room to pack and then brought back stage to say hello to friends from the area and to accept his gift from the facility.

History was made in the puppet and ventriloquist world as puppet artist Mary Ann Taylor presented the gift to Dunham backstage after his performance. Mary Ann Taylor lives in Salem, and she makes Jeff Dunham's puppet, "Peanut." She met Jeff years ago at the annual ventriloquist Vent Haven ConVENTion in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. Peanut is the only puppet that Jeff doesn't make himself, and from what I understand it's because Peanut is a foam, hand-sewn puppet, whereas the rest of his puppets are more traditional.

The gift, commissioned by the Roanoke Civic Center, to welcome Jeff to the star city, was a baby Peanut (Peanut Jr, "PJ"), complete with a hand crocheted baby blanket, one baby booty, one tooth, a diaper and a mint green hat atop his purple head. Jeff was completely speechless for only a moment and then he brought the baby puppet to life. PJ also has a pacifier in his hand and as Jeff was positioning himself with the puppet he placed the pacifier in the puppet's mouth and began a sucking sound. He then directed the puppet's head towards his manager, Robin Tate, and said "Daddy," before turning the puppet's head back to Jeff's own face and saying "Granddaddy." Dunham mentioned the possibility of working "PJ" into his new comedy show, "The Jeff Dunham Show," premiering on Comedy Central on October 22, 2009.

The facility also presented Jeff with PJ's birth certificate complete with a stamped booty and foot print on the framed document, and a gift basket filled with snack size bags of peanuts labeled "Congratulations! It's a Boy" and blue foil wrapped chocolate stars labeled "A star is born."

Who knows? PJ may be the "spark of creative genius" that inspires Jeff to design more of his characters as babies and create a children's show!

Mary Ann Taylor lives in my hometown and I was familiar with her as a local puppet artist who made some of Terry Fator's puppets, "America's Got Talent" winner. I read a feature about her in the May 1st issue of SoSalem and learned she also makes Jeff Dunham's Peanut. From there a marketing gift was born!

Submitted by Sharon Pratt