Months ago – I’ve forgotten how many, please don’t ask – a colleague gave me a bag of vintage fabric I had no idea what to do with. I stashed it under my desk at work and there it sat. Every so often, my foot would come up against it and I’d think, I ought to do something with this stuff. Then I’d get busy doing something else and I’d forget about the fabric until the next time I bumped against it.

One day, when once again I had kicked the bag, I took everything out so I’d know exactly what it was I’d been mashing with my foot. The bulk of the fabric in the bag looked like the anemic remains of draperies – faded pea green, an unappetizing color, hard to determine what fabric, something synthetic, possibly even hostile. But in the bottom of the bag, I found a yard of olive green, cream and black plaid wool. It was quite retro, in a good way, in terms of color and weave. The fabric had a nice feel to it, too. Possibilities, thought I, with a sudden upswing of interest.

But I put the plaid fabric back in the bag and there it stayed a few more weeks until finally I remembered to lug it home and dumped it into the washing machine to felt it. I hung it over the shower bar to dry. That way I could see it as I went about housekeeping tasks, and think about what I was seeing.

For me, the creation of anything – writing or stitchery – begins with seeing, the complicated act of looking at things. What I see churns around in the hanging gardens of my mind where it either blooms into something I want to feed and water, or it disintegrates into the velvet oblivion of forgetting.

Fortunately for the plaid fabric, I had been trolling through Kristin Nicholas’ new book, “Colorful Stitchery” – more about that in a future column. In the book, I saw a photo of a design for embroidery on plaid fabric somewhat similar to my plaid fabric. And all of a sudden, I knew what I wanted to do.

I dug into my stash and found some black wool felt and several different shades of green wool felt. From this, I cut circles of various sizes – I used pill bottles, vitamin bottles and small margarine tub caps for templates. I dug into a container of crewel yarn I keep in the Room Where None May Enter (but me) and selected several shades of green that coordinated with the plaid fabric and the green felt circles.

I laid the plaid square on the floor and spent most of the hour I was “sort of” watching “60 Minutes” pushing the circles around the plaid square until I had them arranged in a way that pleased my eye. Using a blanket stitch, I appliqued the circles to the plaid. I toyed with the idea of adding antique buttons to the circles, but decided against it. With or without the buttons, the resulting design is folksy in a 1970s sort of way. And I gotta tell ya, I really like how it looks.

Using my sewing machine, I stitched the applique plaid square into a pillow cover. I also made a muslin case stuffed with polyester fiberfill for the pillow, inserted that into the plaid cover, and voila, I had myself a handsome – if I do say so myself – bit of do-it-yourself home decor.

I like the plaid fabric so much, I’ve decided to use Kristin Nicholas’ idea and embroider something on another larger square of the plaid wool. A tree shape keeps coming into my mind – with maybe a pale yellow moon applique and a few strangely shaped, embroidered leaves yearning upward. William Morris meets Erica Wilson? I wish I knew. My stitchery, like my writing, evolves according to some alchemy of its own. All I do is sit down with the tools and materials I need and let ‘er roll.

Snippets

. Those contemplating a quilting shop hop can do so from A to T – Auburn to Trenton, and most of the letters of the alphabet in between. Maine has 55 shops that cater to the needs of quilters. For a list of shops in Maine and New Hampshire, complete with addresses and phone numbers, visit the Web site of the Pine Tree Quilters Guild Inc. at http://mainequilts.org/Fabricshops.htm. If the list doesn’t put you in a quilting hunter-gatherer mood, nothing will.

. Here’s your chance: Hampden Adult Education offers knitting, decorative painting, rug braiding and scrapbooking during its spring session beginning the last week in April. To register for a class, or for information, call 862-6422.

. A Web site address in Tuesday’s By Hand column contained an extra letter “e.” The correct address is www.crochetpatterncentral.com.

Call Ardeana Hamlin at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.