Old adventures in DMC

I don't know if I ever mentioned that I was part of the DMC corporation's Designer Bank back in the 80's and 90's. I don't know if you can apply for membership, or if they just choose you (they chose me), but as part of the Designer Bank, I could design any sort of needlework I wanted (using DMC products of course), and send it to them, they'd buy it from me, and then place it in a magazine, either as an ad or as an article. Designs could also be used a promotional giveaways. They paid well, and I never had to worry about submitting projects to individual venues. They weren't so great about notifications, so I don't know how many of my designs ever saw light of day, but that was fine too.

The best part of being in the Designer Bank was the freebies. Not only could I have any DMC product (in any amount) that I requested, I continually got freebies. They were great at putting together promotional goodies for designers and retailers, so every few months, I'd get an amazing gift in the mail. Sometimes the promo things would be new products, sometimes reminders of old things- no matter what was featured, presentation was always amazing.

For the most part, I left the freebies intact and ordered additional supplies for my designs, but now that I'm doing needlepoint with embroidery floss, I figured I might as well use what I have on hand (still Stash Busting, you see), because I have plenty on hand. Here are some of the goodies:

 This incredibly cool hatbox has old maps on it.

 Inside was the entire (at the time) line of Rayon embroidery floss. I learned pretty quickly already that Rayon embroidery floss is not so good for needlepoint, but it's still gorgeous.

 Underneath the embroidery floss, was a layer of Rayon Perle *cotton* for Hardanger work. I must have bought a few of the skeins (they have Ben Franklin tags), but the rest was all promo freebies.

 This cotton case has an Aida cloth band on the front for embroidery. I have no idea why I shot the back side... sigh...

 Inside were all of the new (at the time) cotton floss colors. It's a pretty snazzy case, with room for a project and all of the flosses and a chart.

 This padded cloth pouch has a satin lining. You can tell how old it is by the colors... and the dust...

 Inside was a full set of their cotton Flower Thread (single strand embroidery floss). DMC also had a line of wool Flower Thread, but I actually used a lot of that for design work, including this sampler.

 But I saved the best for last- this little wooden trunk

 carried every single DMC embroidery floss color that they sold. All 378 of them- a full set. Think of that. And until now, I'd never used any. In fact, I mostly forgot that I had them at all.

I'm glad I remembered- I have more than enough colors to do this design justice. Now to see if my skill can keep up.

BTW, I have no idea if I am still part of the Designer Bank. When I started writing fiction, I stopped designing individual projects, and I haven't done any embroidery designing for a really long time because I've concentrated on knitting. I haven't gotten any shipments for a long time, so I'm *inactive* at the very least. I wouldn't ask for more freebies for personal use, but I am sure going to have fun using what they sent me already.