Quilt of Souls: A Memoir

by Phyllis Biffle Elmore

The Yellow House meets Hidden in Plain View in this multigenerational memoir that celebrates African American quilting, family, and honoring the past.

At age four, Phyllis Biffle Elmore was plucked off her front porch in Detroit and dropped on her grandmother Lula Horn’s doorstep in rural Alabama. Phyllis felt utterly abandoned until Grandma Lula showed her both all-encompassing love and her intricate “Quilts of Souls.” Phyllis listened intently as Lula told epic stories of folks who had passed on as she turned their clothing into breathtaking quilts for their families.

Grandma Lula’s generosity of spirit, strong will, and creative soul animate every page and through the quilts, she paints portraits of extraordinary Black women born before and after the Civil War. They are enslaved people, laundresses, storytellers, healers, and quilters whose stories have gone untold until now.

Beautifully written and brilliantly told, Phyllis weaves back and forth through time, piecing together true tales of racism, sexism, and colorism, but also strength and pride, creating a multigenerational patchwork honoring her family and ancestors. From the lush visuals to the powerful history, Quilt of Souls is oral tradition written and preserved for posterity.

“Like the women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, who create masterpieces from cast-off fabrics, Phyllis Biffle Elmore in Quilt of A Memoir uses snippets of history and fragments of memories to craft a narrative that is a powerful and poignant read.”
–Jessica B. Harris, New York Times best-selling author of High on the Hog

"A fascinating read that unravels how storytellers are born and made, with the goal or retelling family history, culture, loves, losses, victories, and the tragedies of memoerable people, from cradle to grave."
–Omar Tyree, best-selling author and NAACP Image Award winner

Genres: Memoir, Biography, Book Club, Nonfiction, Social Justice, History, Family

304 pages, Hardcover

Published November 8, 2022

About the author

PHYLLIS BIFFLE ELMORE is a retired veteran of the United States Air Force and United States Army whose civilian career has included working as a counselor for incarcerated youth, survivors of domestic violence, and people suffering from alcohol and substance abuse. She has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a master’s certificate in creative writing from the University of Denver.
Phyllis lives in Florida with her husband, Reginald Elmore, and has seven granddaughters who are the love of her life.

At age four, Phyllis Biffle Elmore was brought from her home in Detroit to the tiny town of Livingston, Alabama, to be raised by her grandmother, Lula Horn. Lonely and confused, she felt utterly abandoned until Grandma Lula enveloped her in all-encompassing love and a beautiful quilt. Phyllis listened intently to Lula’s epic stories of folks who had passed on and watched as her grandmother turned their clothing into breathtaking “quilts of souls” for their families. 
 Grandma Lula’s generosity of spirit, strong will, and creative soul animate every page of this marvelous memoir, which, like her quilts, paints portraits of extraordinary black women born before and after the Civil War—enslaved people, laundresses, storytellers, healers, and quilters whose stories have gone untold until now. Weaving back and forth in time, Phyllis stitches together true tales of racism, sexism, and colorism, but also strength and pride, creating a multigenerational patchwork honoring her family and ancestors. With significant history and mesmerizing storytelling, Quilt of Souls transforms oral tradition into a beautifully written document, powerfully presented and preserved for posterity.

Reviews

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir recalls an inspiring and touching story of the relationship that developed between the author and her grandmother with whom she lived between ages four to thirteen. The author was born in a family of eight siblings in Detroit, but was shipped off to be raised by her grandparents who lived in a rural African American community in Alabama.

Initially after moving to Alabama the author as a young girl needed to overcome feelings of loneliness and abandonment. But under her grandmother's loving care feelings of love and fulfillment developed. A significant part of this story evolves around her grandmother's preparing of quilts made from clothing worn by recently deceased people from the surrounding community. Those quilts provided family members a keepsake to remind them of their departed loved one.

There is one particular quilt which is repeatedly mentioned throughout the book's narrative that is being prepared for the young author. It's an old quilt made of clothing from family members dating back to the nineteenth century. It's in need of repair from years of wear, and as people die who the author knows pieces of their clothing are incorporated into the quilt. The quilt is becoming the author's own "quilt of souls." The quilt continues to contain clothing from the author's ancestors dating back to before the Civil War, and there are dramatic stories related to those ancestors.

This story takes place in the late 50s and early 60s, and violence experienced by the black community at the hands of white "night riders" is fresh in the memories of those with whom the author is living. Some of the stories sewn into he quilt of souls were victims of this violence.

Among the stories that the author learns about is mistreatment of her grandmother in her younger years at the hands of a white sheriff. The young author can't understand why her grandmother isn't more angry about the incident. Instead she seems to have an attitude of forgiveness. As this story develops a profound lesson in forgiveness comes out of this incident.

The following excerpt from the Book's epilog provides a good concluding summary of the message coming out of this book:

Quilt of Souls is a tribute to everything I learned about slavery, the resulting African American servitude in this country, and the bravery it took for many women of that era to eke out a semblance of dignity from a culture of white supremacy that tried to deny them their basic humanity. Books, articles, documentaries, and movies have detailed the plight of African Americans before slavery and during and after Reconstruction. But it is past time to tell the story of how this same group, particularly Black women, uplifted themselves and overcame injustices while shielding their families from a host of retributions. I wove their words and lives into my heart, just as Grandma sewed the lives of her loved ones into my quilt of souls.

The quilt of souls given to the author by her grandmother can be viewed that the following link (3rd one down):
https://www.thequiltofsouls.com/quilts

The following is text from book describing how the fabric from recently deceased great-grandmother and a great-grandaunt, both of whom had lived into their 100s and could remember slavery, would be added to the author's quilt of souls—their fabric would hold all the other pieces together:

I took a seat next to Grandma as she began pulling out pieces of Mama all's and Miss Jubilee's clothing from the bag that sat before her. Tears began to well up as I realized their clothes would finish my quilt, that Miss Jubilee's fabric would join with Ella's in its center. Along with Ella, her fabric would hold all the other pieces together. How fitting: the grand finale and the closing frame for my quilt of souls.

A word about the author's name:
Following book was published in 2015:
Quilt of Souls , by Phyllis Lawson.
The following book was published in 2022:
Quilt of Souls , by Phyllis Biffle Elmore.
I assume they're the same book and author, but the author changed her name.

LINK to some quotations from the book.

[KayG · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story that looks at race in the south. The book prompted a heartfelt discussion for my Mississippi Book Club. We also saw a quilt given to a country preacher and his family when they left that church. Our quilt expert reminded us that we need to document on the quilt its provenance so that future generations will know.

[Heather Dreier · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book of the year done and it was a beautiful journey.

[Megan Schier · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful tribute to strong, wise women

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written memoir which begins in 1957 when the author is just four years old and was transported from her home in Detroit to be dropped off at her grandparent's, whom she'd never met, in the country in Alabama. But this memoir becomes a retelling of the stories she learned over the years from her Grandma Lula, who was born in Mississippi in 1883. I love the photos that are included in the book and wished there were more. It is amazing to read the descriptions of places and people and then see the photos. The stories will make you fall in love with Grandma Lula.

[Mallory Spiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for a Women’s History Book Club! Very beautiful story with lots to learn from it!

[Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phyllis Biffle Elmore wrote a memoir, yes, but what she really did was stitch together a love letter to Black women. The ones who lived loudly, the ones who suffered quietly, and the ones whose names history never bothered to record. She did it through quilts. And Lord, did it work.

I will be honest about why I picked this book up in the first place. Three things hit me at once: the word quilts in the title, the word Detroit in the description, and the face of a Black girl on the cover. That was all I needed. I am a quilter myself, and there is something about a woman who quilts that I trust instinctively. We are a particular kind of people — patient, deliberate, willing to sit with something long enough to make it whole. When I quilt, I am not just making a blanket. I am thinking. I am meditating. I am piecing together something that will outlast me. So when I learned that this memoir was built around a grandmother’s quilts, I knew this book was going to speak a language I already knew in my hands.

And then there was Detroit. Phyllis Biffle Elmore is from Detroit, and so am I. That matters more than it might seem to someone who has never lived there. Detroit is not just a city, it is a formation. It shapes the way you carry yourself, the way you speak, the way you size up a room. When I read that young Phyllis was plucked off her front porch in Detroit and driven all the way down to rural Alabama, I felt that in a specific way. I know what it means to leave Detroit. I did it myself, as a grown woman, and even then it was a kind of small grief.

The story begins with a four-year-old Phyllis being lifted from everything familiar and dropped on her grandmother Lula Horn’s doorstep in rural Alabama. Just like that. No real explanation that a child could hold onto, no soft landing — just the sudden, disorienting reality of a new world. Phyllis felt abandoned. She felt the particular loneliness that comes not from being alone, but from being somewhere you did not choose. I know that feeling. Not as a child, but as a grown woman who packed up everything she had ever known in Detroit and moved South, thinking she was just changing geography. What I found out real quick is that you are not just changing your zip code. You are stepping into a whole other way of being in the world.

Detroit shaped me. It gave me a certain kind of directness, a pace, a way of moving through space that said I belong here and I know it. The South asked me to slow down, to say “yes ma’am” and “no sir,” to understand that community was not just a concept but an actual living, breathing thing that showed up on your porch with food when somebody passed. I had to unlearn some things and learn others. I had to sit still long enough to receive what the South was offering. That is exactly what young Phyllis had to do with Grandma Lula.

Because Grandma Lula was the South in all its layered, complicated, magnificent glory. She was a woman who had survived things that should have broken her — racism at the hands of a cruel sheriff, the weight of Jim Crow pressing down on every ordinary errand, the indignity of “Colored” signs on water fountains that told you your thirst mattered less. And yet. And yet she quilted. She took the clothing of the dead and she made something beautiful. She sat with her granddaughter and she talked, weaving stories into fabric and fabric into legacy, refusing to let the people she loved disappear just because they were gone.

That is the genius at the center of this book. The quilt is not just a quilt. It is an archive. It is a protest. It is a theology. Every scrap of cloth. From enslaved women who lived before the Civil War, from laundresses and healers and storytellers and ordinary Black women who were extraordinary in ways the world never acknowledged, every single piece becomes a testimony. As someone who quilts, I understand this on a cellular level. When I choose a fabric, I am choosing a memory. When I sew two pieces together, I am making a decision about what belongs next to what, about what story I want those two things to tell together. Grandma Lula understood something that our generation is only now beginning to reclaim: that the stories of Black women are sacred, and if we do not tell them ourselves, they will be lost.

Phyllis Biffle Elmore writes with a voice that is warm and unhurried, the way a good story told on a porch is unhurried. She captures the dialect of rural Alabama with love and precision — “It’s gone be alright, chile, you jus’ wait an’ see. Trouble don’ las’ always” — and you can hear Grandma Lula as clearly as if she were sitting right next to you. This is oral tradition made permanent. This is the spoken word refusing to die.

What moved me most, though, was the lesson in forgiveness that runs like a thread through the entire book. When young Phyllis learns what the white sheriff did to her grandmother, she burns with the righteous anger of a child who has not yet been taught to swallow her fire. And Grandma Lula does not dismiss that anger. She does not tell the child that what happened was acceptable. She tells her to put it down. “That sheriff one sorry fella, but Lawd, did I pray for him.” That is not weakness. That is a woman who refused to let hatred occupy the same space as her peace. That is a woman who understood that her joy was not something anyone else had the right to take, no matter what they did to her body or her dignity.

I had to learn a version of that lesson when I moved South. I came with my Detroit armor on. The kind you build up when you grow up in a city that has been neglected and underestimated, when you learn early that you have to be twice as sharp and twice as ready. I came South with my guard up, half expecting to be reminded of everything this region has historically meant for Black people. And there were moments, real moments, that tested me. But I also found something I was not prepared for: a depth of community, a rootedness, a way of honoring the ancestors that the North, for all its progress, sometimes forgets to practice. The South taught me that survival is not just about pushing forward. Sometimes it is about sitting down, picking up the pieces of what came before you, and sewing them into something you can pass on.

That is what this book is. It is Phyllis Biffle Elmore sitting down with all of us and saying: here, let me show you what I was given. Let me show you who made me.

The memoir also does not shy away from the harder truths of Black life, colorism, sexism, the particular cruelty of a society that stacked oppressions on top of one another and called it normal. Elmore addresses these things not with bitterness but with the clear-eyed honesty of a woman who has had time to understand what she lived through. She is not performing pain for anyone’s consumption. She is bearing witness, which is a different and far more powerful thing.

There is a quilt described near the end of the book that contains fabric from women who lived into their hundreds and could remember slavery. Their cloth, Grandma Lula says, will hold all the other pieces together. I read that passage and had to put the book down for a moment. Because that is what our elders do, isn’t it? They are the center. They are the frame. They hold us together even after they are gone, if we are wise enough to keep their stories close. As a quilter, I felt that truth not just in my mind but in my hands, in the way you place the oldest, most worn piece of fabric at the heart of a quilt because it is the one that holds the most history, the most weight, the most love.

Quilt of Souls is not just a book for people who know the South. It is a book for anyone who has ever felt uprooted, anyone who has had to find themselves in an unfamiliar place, anyone who has sat with an elder and felt the weight and the gift of everything they carried. It is a book for Black women especially, a reminder that we come from a long, unbroken line of women who refused to be erased, who made art out of scraps, who loved fiercely and forgave deliberately and built something lasting out of whatever they were given.

Do yourself the favor of sitting down with this one and giving it the time it deserves. Let it settle into you the way only the truest stories can. And when you are done, call somebody who knew your people and ask them to tell you a story. Before it is too late. Before the fabric frays beyond repair.

[Nann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title pulled me in: quilts! But ithe stories kept me turning the pages. Phyllis Elmore's memoir is compelling and inspirational.

In 1957 four-year-old Phyllis was taken from her family in Detroit to live with her maternal grandparents in rural Alabama. She does not go into details about why, but the result was life-changing in the very best way. Grandma Lula was patient and caring. She knew just how to ease the little girl's fears.

Lula was renowned for her memory quilts. When someone "passed over" (Phyllis learned not to say "died") their families commissioned Lula to make quilts from the loved one's clothing. As she cut and stitched she told stories about strong, determined, and courageous people. "...I used to imaging G.C. wandering in a clear space, looking for someone he could romp and run with. Wen Grandma sewed his brothers into the quilt it felt like he was no longer along...Their fabric, those pieces of corduroy, wool, and denim, were arranged throughout the sides an middle of my quilt of souls. Then Grandma put a strip of G.C.'s gray britches along the left edge. Looking at it, I imagined him running down to the spring to romp and splash around, and I smiled." (p/ 130)

Lula's own parents were born into slavery. She knew first-hand the experience of separated families. For many years she worked as a nanny/housekeeper for a white family, making a long daily round trip by wagon and car (though she did not drive) because she had her own children and household.

The personalities that Elmore writes about are memorable -- not only Grandma Lula and Grandpa Edgar but also Miss Sugar and Miss Evelyn, Mama Nall, Aunt Bessie, and Sheriff Scruggs. Just as all the fabric in a scrappy quilt combines and blends to an intriguing (and most often pleasing) whole, all of the people we encounter contribute to the quilt of our lives.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four-year old Phyllis is taken from Detroit to live with her grandparents in rural Alabama. Her grandmother was a remarkably loving and kind woman who gave her a beautiful sense of belonging and place. People would bring clothing from a loved one who had died and her grandmother made a quilt for the family.

Here's the blurb from goodreads:
At age four, Phyllis Biffle Elmore was plucked off her front porch in Detroit and dropped on her grandmother Lula Horn’s doorstep in rural Alabama. Phyllis felt utterly abandoned until Grandma Lula showed her both all-encompassing love and her intricate “Quilts of Souls.” Phyllis listened intently as Lula told epic stories of folks who had passed on as she turned their clothing into breathtaking quilts for their families.

Grandma Lula’s generosity of spirit, strong will, and creative soul animate every page and through the quilts, she paints portraits of extraordinary Black women born before and after the Civil War. They are enslaved people, laundresses, storytellers, healers, and quilters whose stories have gone untold until now.

Beautifully written and brilliantly told, Phyllis weaves back and forth through time, piecing together true tales of racism, sexism, and colorism, but also strength and pride, creating a multigenerational patchwork honoring her family and ancestors. From the lush visuals to the powerful history, Quilt of Souls is oral tradition written and preserved for posterity.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sweet story that combines life lessons taught by a wise grandmother with stories of people who were shaped by their own experiences. Philomena is four years old when she's taken from her parent's home in Detroit to live with her grandparents in rural Alabama. Her grandmother's love and wisdom is just what Philomena needs to shape her formative years. Her grandmother is also a gifted quilter who makes "Quilts of souls" from the clothing of those who have "passed on" and gives them to their families. While sewing the quilts, she shares the stories of the people whose lives were often hard and brutal, and shaped them into who they became. Sadly, for reasons that are not explained, Philomena is removed from her grandparents' home and taken back to Detroit for her teenage years - but that isn't part of the story and I can only hope she's written a subsequent story about that time!

[Diane Ferbrache · Rating 5 out of 5]

At age 4, Phyllis Elmore was taken from her home in Detroit and sent to live with her grandmother in southern Alabama. At her grandmother's knee (literally) she learned to quilt, snap peas, and tell stories. This book is a compilation of the stories her grandmother told -- the stories of her ancestors' lives and the lives of the people around them.

This is a touching, sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying, sometimes sweet, sometimes heartbreaking memoir that actually spans the time from the mid 1800s to the 1960s. Elmore has thrived and become a success due to the strong women around her when she was growing up. This memoir is a testament to those women (and a few men). Her storytelling skills shine here. This is not just a collection of simple recollection, every story is a prize-winning effort. I could not put it down.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this memoir. For one, quilting is involved and I love a good book with sewing in the background. But the way Biffle Elmore used quilting to weave in the stories of her grandmother's neighbors and friends really made it all work. It really showed how those quilts her grandmother made would hold the stories with all of their sadness and loss and become something that was healing to the person that she gave the quilt to. There were so many stories of siblings being separated because of slavery or as a result of the poverty that came after. Stories of children dying too young or young people being killed by irrational white people. These were the stories of her childhood and the town where she grew up. Also, I was amazed at how quickly her grandmother pieced those quilts by hand! She had so many jobs to do and yet she continued to finish those quilts.

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little girl from Detroit is sent to live and be raised by her grandparents in a small town in Alabama. In that loving home her grandmother teaches her about the stories of her family and the importance of remembering them. She also teaches her about quilts that the grandmother makes to celebrate the lives of people she knows and people who have passed on. This is a book about quilts and about family history. There is a lot to admire and learn here about how life was for blacks in the south at the end of slavery and the years that followed as told by Phyllis Biffle Elmore, who was that little girl.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's heart breaking to hear how badly people can treat another human being. Most of the stories in this book took place in my grandparents generation and that doesn't feel very long ago.

Parts of this book are sad. Parts of this book you don't really want to read. Some of the stories you are afraid to hear. But everyone should have a quilt of souls. What a fascinating way to remember the people in your past. Grandma Lula taught some great life lessons to her granddaughter, too.

I struggle reading accents that are written down. And I hated that there was so much cussing in this book, but I understand why.

[Janilyn Kocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quilt of Souls is a testament and a tribute to the author’s grandmother. She lived with her grandparents for 9 years and her life was never the same.
Her grandmother taught her so many things above and beyond quilting. Imbued in the fabric of the quilts are the stories of the people who became very close to Elmore.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am grateful the author shared her family history and the histories of friends and neighbors alike.
Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the advance copy.

[Angelina C. Claudon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful story and beautiful souls.

This book is so captivating that you won’t be able to put it down. It is a history lesson as well as a tale of history being told. I thank the author and her family for letting me try to understand their lives and all the trials that they had to endure. It’s with great sadness realizing how we mistreat people just because they are of a different color and origin. We need to do better as we are all God’s children no matter what color, or where we came from.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I turn the last page of this book I don’t want it to end. The writer and her amazing grandma have become my family, their story is my story. I don’t want to look for the next book to read. I want to remain wrapped in Ma Lula’s quilt listening to her share her faith, strength, and her sweet healing Spirit. Now that we have become family I’m hoping to read more of this writers’ work. As a writer with a similar story I’m hoping that this writer will continue to tell her story of survival after she was taken back to live with her mother.

[Elaina Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the best books I have read in a long time. Her personal story of her life with her grandmother and other members of her family was very moving. Her story resonates with me as my grandmother was an instrumental figure in my life. I loved the idea about the Quilt of Souls. How each fabric was taken from someone who passed on but who had story to tell.

I highly recommend this book.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how I hadn't heard of this book sooner! This books is just for ppl who quilt. This story dives into the life of the author when she is taken to live with her grandparents at age 4. Throughout the book you learn about her heritage and the times in AL in the 50s and 60s. Grandma made quilts from scraps of clothing from ppl who had passed on and her granddaughter passes on the stories she told as she stitched them. A must read!

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautifully written stories

I truly enjoyed this book. The author tells the stories of her grandmother and other strong women in her life and how they shaped her life as a young child. The writing is lovely and the stories draw you in and you don’t want to stop reading. I’m sad it is over.

[Morgan Kuhr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed my whole life. I couldn’t put it down and finished it in 24 hours.
This is an incredible story about the history of African Americans in this country, but it transcends race. It is a true testament to forgiveness, empathy, love, and grief. I recommend this to anyone and everyone!

[Jill Nesheim · Rating 5 out of 5]

heart break and heart healing

I am grateful for these stories to understand the lives of others I grew up in a very different world but at the same time as the author It is because people are willing to tell their stories and we can and we need to read them to fully understand our differences and similarities This book can heal anyone’s heart and help them walk in another persons shoes

[Marie Ervin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A SURPRISING MEMOIR OF SLAVERY AND RESILIENCE

I enjoyed this history lesson of famial love and heartbreak about slavery and reconstruction. The background of Quilt of Souls was a beautiful story of family love and honoring the senior generation of each family. Highly recommend the audiobook

[Sophia Luu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book dearly.. how resilience, love, forgiveness, and faith persevere despite many difficulties is humbling and inspiring. It was incredible to hear the all the stories from the Civil War onto happenings in the 1960's. You could feel the warmth and tenderness of Grandma Lula's hugs and spirit.

[Jenny Giarratano · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title got my attention; the subjects stole my heart. I love this book and the people in it. Thank you, Ms. Biffle Elmore, for bringing your warm, loving family into my consciousness, particularly Miss Lula. She is truly a person we can all aspire to be.

[Jenny Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories in stories...a memoir of a family history, covering race, trauma, poverty and more. I really felt like I got to know the people.

[Parkway · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very long and uneventful.

[Nancy Billington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful read. The history and stories passed down from her Grandmother were heartbreaking yet I kept wanting to read and learn more from her. Loved the book.

[June · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned so much about my own culture from reading this fascinating book.

[polina davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quilt of Souls

Awesome and amazing and beautifully written. It is mow 12:41 am. Just finished reading and I wish there was more to read. Amazing read. I give it 10 stars.