A Tompkinsville mother and son’s love of quilting is gaining them some posthumous recognition.

Betty Birge and David Ray Birge made over 100 quilts together, with some being donated to museums, including the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

The hobby was a way for Betty, who died in 2011 at the age of 82, and David, who died in 2005 at the age of 44, to spend time together.

The quilts were inherited by Betty’s grandson, Spencer Allen of Bloomfield, Indiana, originally from Glasgow, after his father passed away a few years ago.

According to Allen, a majority of the quilts, which all have the same basic design, were donated to the homeless or gifted to extended family, with others being set aside to donate to museums.

“I recently received news that some of their quilts were accepted into museums,” Allen said. “One was accepted into the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Two were accepted into the permanent collection of the Smithsonian-affiliated Frazier Museum in Louisville and one was accepted into the permanent collection of the Kentucky Museum on the WKU campus.”

Allen said that David, who had severe autism, depended on Betty to help care for him.

“When David was younger, he and his father were walking along a road in Tompkinsville and his father was fatally struck by a car in front of him,” Allen said. “He was always on the autism spectrum, but the trauma from that event led him to become non-verbal.”

Allen said that in the summertime, Betty and David would walk around Tompkinville close to the landfill and pick up shirts, curtains and fabrics that they used to fashion their quilts.

“In the winter, they would work together making the quilts,” he said. “David would cut the fabric into strips and squares. They had an old manual sewing machine, but looking at the quilts, they were obviously handstitched.”

Allen said they used wool blankets for the batting inside the quilts, with old curtains and bedsheets as the backing.

“My grandmother would throw the pieces together and David would help tie the quilts,” he said.

Allen said he remembers visits to his grandmother’s house on the weekends when he was younger.

“That little house in Tompkinsville was filled with tons of quilts,” he said. “When I was younger, I didn’t really know that they were the ones that made the quilts.”

Allen recalled many of them being kept in a shed outside, leaving them exposed to the elements.

“A lot of them had moth holes in them and smelled of mothballs,” he said.

After Betty and David passed away, Allen’s dad kept them in his basement and attic for ten more years, until Allen inherited them.

Since then, many of them needed repairs and some tender loving care, so Allen paid a few quilters in Indianapolis to have them restored.

One of the quilters, Marie Harnish, repaired some of the quilts and stitched the story of Betty and David on the back of them.

“I mended a few myself and donated them to homeless shelters in Bloomington,” Allen said.

Another one will be sent to the daughter of one of his grandmother’s sisters, Edie, after Allen discovered a notepad with some of her writings in his dad’s basement.

“Edie had moved to Oklahoma City and her daughter is living in Virginia,” Allen said. “I contacted her and let her know about her mom’s journal and I’m sending her one of the quilts.”

Allen said that currently, he has about 10 of the remaining quilts in his possession, with two in mint condition that have been sanitized and triple wrapped.