Putting together all the pieces has been the job of a lifetime HTTP://www.shelbynews.com/main.asp?SectionID=89&subsectionID=301&articleID=46991 Web Posted 4/4/2007 2:00:00 PM The notation for a possible story just said "lady who makes clothes for dogs," which sounded like a nice little "feel-good" article, perhaps worth a chuckle or two. As it happens, the comedy aspect could have turned to tragedy were it not for the indomitable faith and positive attitude of that woman who, incidentally, really does make garments for dogs. Mary Lou Bruns - a good friend "forever" - helped fill in the details about this remarkable woman. Martha J. Taylor, of Waldron, taught quilting classes to Japanese women for 13 years; has made "wonderful" quilts for herself and others; designed and stitched her daughter's wedding gown; and designed and sold patterns for vests and handbags to Simplicity - "a very talented lady," Bruns said. "I joke that when we have a question about anything, we'll 'ask Martha.'" But unlike that "other Martha" who has her own media empire and seems to know how to do everything to perfection (except relate on a person-to-person basis), this Martha has enough understanding and empathy to make up for a dozen "other Marthas." In 1982, Taylor and Bruns were charter members of the Bear Paw Quilters Guild, which regularly meets at Grover Museum. Years ago, Taylor and Bruns were asked by Grover Museum to attend a "cultural exchange" meeting with a number of Japanese women who had recently come to Shelbyville along with the Japanese industrial plants and were urged to bring something they had made with them. They took quilts, and the Japanese women were fascinated by the intricacy and artistry of the craft. Taylor was encouraged to teach them how to quilt, and 20 women showed up for a session at her Waldron home. At the time, few of the women knew much conversational English and Taylor knew no Japanese, but somehow there was never a communication gap when it came to the teaching and learning process. While the number dwindled over time, Taylor continued teaching the ever-changing group for 13 years. She has a sense of humor about the "minor" catastrophes that occur from time to time. Two weeks before Christmas, she and her husband, Larry, who celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2006, returned home after being away for two weeks to find extensive water damage from a broken refrigerator hose that had leaked water the entire time. Worst of all was Taylor's tiny sewing room, where the water had wicked into the carpeting and everything had to be removed. "We carried load after load out of that room, and my husband finally said, 'I don't see how one woman could accumulate that much stuff in such a small space!' I told him it had been a lifetime achievement. We had Christmas at my son's house." Her sewing room today is no larger and still contains a tremendous amount of materials and supplies, yet it is extremely well-organized, thanks to a number of clever storage systems and work areas created by her husband. The two have lived in their circa early 1900s home the entire 40 years they've lived there, from the time they first moved in - with only basic electricity and no plumbing, when Taylor bathed her children in a tub in the cellar, using water from a pump. The couple travels a lot, sometimes out West but usually to Florida or Vermont, where her husband's family lives. "We were in Florida last month when we received word that Larry's brother had died," Taylor said. "We went straight from wearing summer clothes to icy Vermont weather and had to go out and buy new winter clothes," she said. She designed and made her daughter's wedding gown - by using the "designer method" of draping scrap material over a dress form - as well as dresses for four attendants, the flower girl and herself as mother of the bride. But before that awesome accomplishment, she did the same for her daughter's best friend, Jonelle, who had lost her own mother to breast cancer before her wedding. "I just felt it was something I needed to do." Taylor's life also has been touched with the tragic deaths of three young boys, of three generations, who couldn't be any closer to her: a brother, a son and a grandson. . In 1958, her 16-year-old brother, Jerry Dean Bartlett, was on his way to church near Lewis Creek as a passenger in a car driven by a family friend and her two children when they were involved in a crossroads collision with another car containing another family, including a man, his pregnant wife and young daughter, also on their way to a nearby church. Bartlett was thrown through the windshield, but first he struck his head on the metal bar that once bisected the windshield of many cars. This also was before seat belts were required, and Taylor believes he would have lived had he worn one. The driver died, her two children were hospitalized (two others were being baby-sat by the Bartlett family). The pregnant woman lost her baby; the daughter survived. . Eighteen months after their son, Ethan, was born in 1961, the Taylors were told that he had cystic fibrosis. Not that much was known about the illness then, and by this time Martha was expecting another child, a daughter, and feared she also would have CF, when they learned it could be genetic. Ethan was in third-grade and only 8 years old when he died on April 12, 1970. . Grandson Zack, born in October of 1985, son Lanny's boy, was only 6-1/2 when he died from a medula blastoma - brain tumor - in 1992. "Of course, I grieved for them all and still do," she said. "But I rely on my faith and the belief that they are OK somewhere other than here," she said, "and are being cared for by someone much greater than I. In the end, I always came back to that: that someone better than me is taking care of them, and that gets me through it all." And the process made her a strong emotional support for her mother and daughter-in-law, all of them sharing the tragic common experience: losing a beloved son. And about those dog garments? Taylor's son-in-law is Jeff Owens, also of Waldron and the owner and trainer of Kasey, the Fire Safety Dog, who makes appearances at schools and other venues to teach children about the dangers of fires and what to do to prevent and escape them. Owens asked her to design and make the bright yellow vest Kasey wears. She made a newspaper pattern for the first one, which was smaller then as the dog was still a puppy. Since then, she has expanded the size and made a number of the vests, adapting the pattern to fit other dogs in the fire-safety profession, as well. One of Taylor's most outstanding and prominent accomplishments is on permanent display for all who enter the lobby of Major Hospital. She and Bruns, her good friend - and "partner in crime" - worked on the gorgeous quilted painting tapestry depicting the original W.S. Major Hospital that hangs there. While doing research on the project in 1992, they visited the Hamilton County Courthouse in Noblesville to view similar handwork done by others and happened to be on the second floor looking down as workmen were struggling with the placement of a gigantic marble circle tile in the main floor. They couldn't keep quiet as they noticed the men were about to place it off-center and, once placed, it would be impossible to move. So it was that the two seasoned quilters, who know how important it is to place each piece with mathematical precision in completing the desired design, gave the final command when it was time to drop the gargantuan piece into exactly the right position. Taylor said that they were having difficulty in reproducing the leaded glass door and stained-glass windows until they thought of using lace and net material. Observers of the piece should take note of this and other details, including the individual leaves on the trees and a man's walking stick fashioned from a toothpick.