As a girl, Angela Adams was a doodler and a dreamer.

The North Haven girl turned international design sweetheart liked to draw patterns. Over time, she accumulated “stacks and stacks” of paper adorned with her fluid, striking sketches.

It would be easy and cliche to say she never expected it to turn into her life’s work. But Adams, 38, knew she was on to something. As an interior design student in Philadelphia, she earned a little extra money painting patterns on walls or furniture. She learned the business side of things managing galleries in Portland and on North Haven. She just needed to find a way to put the two together.

“I had designed a language, then I mostly started out thinking, ‘How can I translate that into a full-time job?'” Adams said recently in the superchic conference room of her Portland studio.

When she moved back to Maine, she set out in search of clean, modern furniture to paint. Her quest led her to craftsman Sherwood Hamill, and the two immediately hit it off. In the 13 years that have passed since the day they met, they have been inseparable. Today, they share a building and studio space, and they recently married in their Munjoy Hill home.

Furniture may have led to love, but it was a line of hand-tufted rugs that catapulted the Maine designer into the national spotlight in 1997. After a stint at a high-end rug manufacturer in Portland, Adams realized she had found the right medium for her patterns – bold, graphic, colorful designs that were at once retro and fresh.

“She was mod before mod came into full fashion force,” Natalie Warady, style editor at Budget Living magazine, said by phone from Manhattan. “She really brought a lot of these designs out at a time when everyone was looking for them.”

And everyone noticed – especially the press. Editors at Metropolitan Home, The New York Times, and Wallpaper, to name a few, included Adams’ rugs in their layouts. A line of textiles, pillows and accessories soon followed.

“It turned into a lifestyle company over a couple of years,” she said. “A natural, comfortable lifestyle that’s all about quality, comfort and nature.”

Though it may not be immediately apparent, nature – North Haven specifically – has shaped Adams’ design aesthetic. What at first appears to be stylized dots on a rich, green rug references patches of moss on the forest floor. Her “Haze” rug, with its shimmering swirl of mustard, ochre and black, was inspired by a hot summer day. And “Haven,” with its mosaic of red and maroon spots against a serene blue background, mimics the coastline of her hometown.

At the same time, her designs have a distinct ’60s vibe. One of her earliest motifs, “Manfred,” brings to mind a vintage TV set. The curvy “Lulu” pattern, which was inspired by beach rocks, would look equally at home on a throw pillow in a New York apartment or on the wallpaper of a swingin’ bachelor pad circa 1965.

“I really resisted the whole retro thing people were plugging us into,” said Adams. “I call them timeless designs that will last forever, and a lot of that was inspired by the place where I grew up.”

On North Haven, 12 miles off Rockland, things move more slowly than on the mainland. On her Web site, Adams’ biography states, “Fashion and styles come and go on the mainland, but on an island the decades seem to linger.” Her surroundings weren’t dictated by the trends in Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel. They were dictated by what worked, whether it was solid furniture or her grandmother’s vintage linoleum floor.

“The designs I found in her house, I’ve always found my most comforting design memories,” Adams said.

That sense of comfort is one reason why her textiles, rugs and accessories have gained such a following among fashion and lifestyle editors.

“She has a very warm quality about everything she does,” Warady said. “She’s managed to capture something that appeals to all sorts of different lifestyles. She marries nostalgia with modernity and current trends. There’s really no one else like her out there right now.”

Keith Carollo, a co-owner of trendy online retailer Fred Flare, met Adams several years ago, and recently saw her new lines at the New York International Gift Fair.

“I think she’s one to watch,” Carollo said from his New York office. “It was awesome to see all her new things.”

Carollo and his partner, Chris Bick, carry their own line of accessories, as well as the work of other like-minded designers. They’re always looking for products that remind them of their youth, and Adams’ belts, handbags and notebooks fit the bill. Their online storefront caters to a young, hip customer, but Carollo said women of all ages are gaga over the Maine native’s style.

“It’s a really interesting range,” Carollo said. “You have your younger girls wearing the belts with jeans, and then you have the older, 40- or 50-something woman who wants the belt with the matching handbags. … I think what’s nice is it’s a little flashy, but it’s not tacky. It’s a great way to add a little flourish but it’s not ostentatious.”

Carollo calls the designer a “down-home girl,” and he admires her for following her own path, staying in Maine, and making her mark from afar.

Though people often tell Adams it would be easier if she moved to New York, she disagrees. In Portland, she’s close to her family. She has a large studio with room for her rug factory, a huge workshop for Hamill, and a storefront, to boot. She travels to North Haven for catalog shoots, using locals and colleagues’ children as her models.

During a recent visit to her studio, next fall’s handbags were huddled on the floor against a wall painted in the aqua “Manfred” pattern. Miniature models of purses, crafted from paper, balanced on the edge of a desk. Downstairs, Deb McKowen trimmed the wool on a luxurious red rug with sheep shears. And as she walks through her shop, Adams stops to run her index finger over a rainbow of stripes on a dark rug.

The pattern is called “Bodine,” after her aunt by the same name. Bodine lives on North Haven and knits everyone in the family striped socks for Christmas out of wool scraps.

This is where Adams gets her inspiration.

“Being in Maine is a real advantage,” she said. “People are surprised we’ve stayed in Maine, which really surprises me, because we’d never leave.”

Angela Adams’ showroom is located at 273 Congress St. in Portland. For information, call 774-3523 or visit www.angelaadams.com.