My mother showed me how to embroider when I was 10 years old. That summer, I received for my birthday a kit consisting of a square of white cotton. The sides were stamped with a fawn, a kitten, a puppy and a duckling. Each corner had a tiny flower motif stamped in it.

My mother gave me an embroidery hoop of silver metal, the inner ring padded with cork, pulled a needle from the pin cushion and took the big scissors from the hook above the kitchen counter – all the tools I needed.

I remember sitting cross-legged on my bed, the bottom bunk, attempting to thread the needle, wetting the end of the floss with saliva as I had seen my mother and grandmother do, a practice, I learned much later, frowned upon by serious needleworkers.

My hands got sweaty, so great was my desire to “make something,” to learn the simple stitches, to make the needle do what I wanted it to.

Saliva, to me, was a perfectly good glue for holding things together when they threatened to come apart. As I worked, the piece absorbed the sweat from my hands and my saliva on the end of the floss. Truly, the piece was a part of me. What I sewed, what I made, had parts of me in it.

When I finished the embroidery, my mother ironed it and put it away in the antique steamer trunk where she kept such treasures. Sometimes she took it out and used it as a stand cloth on the bureau beside her bed. I felt such pride on those occasions to see something I had made serving a useful and decorative purpose.

Now, 50 years later, I still have that 8-inch square of embroidery. Clearly, it was a collaboration between my mother and me. The fawn, stitched in pink, is done in floss and pearl cotton. Some of the stitches are neat, with a proper thread tension. Most are loose and uncertain.

The duckling is embroidered in pink pearl cotton in straight and outline stitches, obviously the work of my mother’s hand as she worked on the motif to show me what to do. But where did the pearl cotton come from, the treadle sewing machine drawer where such materials were kept? Had I lost some of the floss, or tied it up in such a tangle it was useless?

The cat and dog are embroidered in straight and outline stitches in brown floss – knots and scraggly ends. My work.

The four small flower motifs are done with red straight stitches, brown stems and green pearl cotton leaves in what look to be a failed attempt at chain stitch – more of my work. A band of royal blue running stitches around the perimeter completes the piece. The edge is finished with single crochet in variegated thread in blue, pink, green and peach ombre – my mother’s work.

My mother knew how much of my 10-year-old self was in the piece, so perhaps she kept it all those years as a way of keeping some part of my childhood with her. Perhaps it reminded her, as it does me now, of the moments we sat, side by side, her big hands guiding my small ones, as she taught me a skill that has kept me in stitches all these years.

Write us in brief about your very first handwork. Send pieces, no more than 150 words in length, to By Hand, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net. Include name, town and daytime telephone. Ardeana Hamlin may be reached at 990-8153.

Snippets

. The Bangor Area Sewing Guild is offering a class on rug making with Beverly Rich at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, May 14, at the Hampden Municipal Building. The cost of the class if $10 for guild members, $15 for others. A kit, consisting of several pounds of wool fabric and a crochet hook, is needed. The cost of the kit is $25. Call 941-8815 to register or for information.

. Those traveling to Washington D.C. this summer will find treats at The Textile Museum: “Beyond the Bag: Textiles as Containers,” through June 5; “Textiles for This World and Beyond: Treasures from Insular Southeast Asia,” until Sept. 18; “Gods and Empire: Huari Ceremonial Textiles,” July 1-Jan. 26; and “Silk and Leather: Splendid Attire of 19th Century Central Asia,” Sept. 2-Feb, 26. Visit www.textilemuseum.org to learn more.

. Spring Valley Gift and Yarn shop, 248 Kelly Road in Bancroft will hold an open house 2-4 p.m. Sunday, May 1. Visitors can meet newborn lambs and learn the fundamentals of shepherding. Spinning, dyeing yarns with natural materials, knitting and weaving demonstrations will be given. To learn about the event, call Sandi at 448-3226.