I never thought it would happen to me

but I've caught a really bad case of "Hexagon-itis".
     WHAT?  Hexagons.  They are everywhere.
     When I first started going to the Friday quilt group I noticed that a  few of the ladies were busy stitching pieces of fabric to hexagon paper shapes that I learned later they had order in quantity from an online store.  I knew "English Paper Piecing" was what they were doing.   In the very early days of my quilt making I tried  my hand at this.  Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts in 1930 colors is a favorite of mine and if I were into making bed quilts I would more than likely in all these years made at least one along with maybe one or two Wedding Rings.  But while I loved looking at them as well as most traditional quilts I  never fell in love with the process of making them.  I think more than anything I found sewing fabric to paper, one piece after the other, or many, many small patches together boring.
    So as the weeks of me going to the Friday group turned into months, Spring into Summer and now Fall, I have watched these ladies continue on determinedly.  But I was sure that the bug that make you want to produce a zillion little patches measuring 3/4" on each  side was not going to infect me.
     WRONG!!!!
     Yesterday I was back with the ladies, but as on most Friday, with me having my own hand work to do I could look and not get infected, but on this Friday I had not hand work of my own to do,  I did not escape. 
     I came into the room and greeted everyone and all was well until I sat down at a table with one of the ladies and watched as she made one patch after the next as we chatted.  I think it was the charm of the fabrics that she was using that got me  and the itch to touch some cloth, but I asked if I could try my hand at making one or two of them for her since I did not bring anything to work on and she cheerfully smiled and handed me a threaded needle, a scrap of fabric and a hexagon shaped piece of paper and said, " have at it." or something similar.
     I think by the time we broke for lunch  an hour or so later I had made a dozen of the little patches and was itching to do more.
   On the way home I stopped at the Quilt Shop in Lake Mary to see if they had any of the foundation paper hexagon shapes.  They didn't.  I was not disappointed.  I thought the bug would be short lived. 
WRONG!!!
     When I finally got home after picking my daughter up at the Airport, I went on line at first to order some of those paper shapes and then went in search for ones that could be downloaded.  I found them.  I  selected the 1" on a side ones and ran out three sheets of them, 45 hexagons in all. 
    

     My case of 'Hexagon-itis" had me wake late into the wee hours of this morning.  I watched some programs I had saved to DVD and searched for fabric in my meager stash of commercial fabric for fabrics in the red color family.  Will these shapes ever grow into a quilt?   I don't know.  Maybe I'll be like the other ladies who bring theirs to Friday group and keep making one after the other, after the other as  I haven't seem a quilt top from one of them either yet.
IN THE MEAN TIME...
I have a piece of silk stretched on the design wall with a drawing ready to paint.  I'm going to try completing it before  the Dec 2 entry deadline for the Mancuso World Quilt Show Florida IV. 
 TODAY 
I'm sure I will not be painting.  Right now I have to go make some more hexagons.