This is the author's heart-warming story about growing up on a farm in Oklahoma, struggling to get a high school education and eventually becoming a successful dress designer. Altha Earnest writes about the days of quilting parties, singing conventions and one-room schools. From the Prairie to the Mountains also tells of mid-twentieth century New Mexico, World War II, and Mrs. Earnest's famous Birdwatcher Shop in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and her career as a designer of Southwestern clothes.