I definitely have the best blog readers ever!  Not only do you all leave supportive comments for Lily, but when I mentioned having a hard time coming up with a simple to sew sheep, Sharon sent me an email and a picture of her 1980s quilt with a simple sheep block!

Sharon didn’t have the designer’s name for the original block. I drafted it to suit our purposes, as a 14″ finished block.

Here is a comparable pattern that will work with our sew along.  Simply cut your fabric to the sizes shown in this layout.

The resulting block is so cute.  We are going to add button eyes like this after we quilt.

When I posted the picture on Instagram, Synnove recognized it as a Debbie Mumm pattern from “Quick Country Quilting” from 1992.  The pattern is called “Flock of Sheep” and the blocks are 8″.  Sharon remembers sewing her quilt in the 1980s so maybe they are similar patterns or the book had a couple of editions?  Anyway, I hope my modifications make it ok to use the block for this purpose.

The reason we wanted to include a sheep block for the Farmer Boy book is because there is a chapter where Almanzo betters his father and brother who keep telling him that they are going to beat him no matter how fast he works.  They are shearing the sheep and he is carrying the wool to the second floor in the barn.  He catches on and realizes why they will beat him so he sneaks a sheep up to the second floor before it is sheared.  At the end, he beats them.  All the wool is upstairs and they have one more sheep to shear.  Lily thought it was very funny.

I hope you have fun making block 8 in our sew along!  Now, back to reading On the Banks of Plum Creek.