Better Than Trick-or-Treating

I'm home from St. Charles and have a chance to unpack my bags, although I'm still doing the laundry. This is the St. Charles right next door to St. Louis MO, rather than St. Charles in Louisiana. I think I would have enjoyed visiting the LA version again after many years, and I know I would have enjoyed the food more. I did survive 5 days of the Midwest's "fine" food. Seriously, did you know they deep fried even my salad croutons? Dang, I'm craving gumbo and blackened seafood now!

A peek at the Ink Circles booth: the new stuff table

What nourishment I couldn't find for my stomach was made up for by the feast my eyes and brain. And with two minions helping in the booth I was able to escape periodically and lose myself among the walls of silks and samplers.

Oh, Glorious Gloriana. New colors of lovely silk!

And 32 (woot!) new colors of Tudor Silk by Gloriana.
This is the superfine stuff, perfect for
over one and micro masterpieces.

Weeks has a new supplier for 40 count
undyed linen, which means it's now
coming available again in their dyed colors!

Elizabeth Taledo was there with her new
line of trims. Is it wrong to be thinking
Cthulhu when I look at the tiny green ric rack?

I've had Treenway silks in my spinning basket, but now
they make silk for stitching!!!

I've had a few customers stitch my monochromes in Sulky.
They now make a smaller size spool. I must try this out.

Wayne at Doodlin' Around makes these awesome little
boxes and baskets. 

Of course, Weeks had new cotton colors too.

As I unload my stash, I realize I ran out of show weekend well before I got to visit all of my favorite booths and explore all the new ones. I can't believe I missed popping into Gentle Arts thread booth for instance.

We also had a little time outside of show hours to explore old St. Charles.  Hannah found Mr. Boone to be quite a charmer.

The town was abuzz! Cicadas Katydids were everywhere, but were hard to photograph without zoom capabilities on my mobile.

What is the point of camouflage when making that much noise?

St. Louis's local beer...

Take note that Schlafly is duly represented in Project 99.

The minions and I enjoy a meal at the Trailhead Brewery
and I got to enjoy the only stout beer I could find in MO.

And I finally managed to fly through Salt Lake
City at an appropriate hour to enjoy a
Polygamy Porter.  If I'd had a longer layover, I would
have had two. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

My head is so full of wonderful ideas and thoughts, I feel ready to explode.  My deepest appreciation to all of the shops that came, making the event viable, and to all of the other vendors. Synergy at its finest.