[citation needed] In the catalog to her 1984 Fresno Arts Center exhibition, Jack Lenor Larsen described Phillips as the "transition between the old-fashioned, pattern-book knitting and the extraordinary things going on in England and America today.

She attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan from 1946 to 1947, when she received her BFA degree, studying contemporary weaving and textiles.

The works included woven upholstery, tie-dyed blankets, wall hangings, rugs, knitted sculptures and ceramics.

These knitted art pieces incorporated unusual natural and synthetic materials such as linen, silk, paper, tape, leather, hair, asbestos fibers, seeds, fiberglass and metals.

[4] Unlike past knitting forms, she strayed away from the usual patterns and instead created works that resembled tapestries and lace.

[6] In 1984, she was awarded a fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for her last book, Knitting Counterpanes: Traditional Coverlet Patterns for Contemporary Knitters.