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bring our Ann Estelle’s to every meeting, and some months, we’re supposed to dress her to a theme, and other months, we learn something with Ann Estelle. While some members sew, and others knit or crochet or do beadwork, Anne Estelle has shown up wearing leaves, wrapping paper, and a variety of other non-traditional coverings. Click here to see the results of our efforts at clothing her. You can read about some of the other things we’ve done with our Ann Estelle’s at the Meeting Notes page.
Everyone in the club has approached the Ann Estelle challenge with excitement and enthusiasm. And regardless of our differing primary interests in the doll community, Ann Estelle has linked us with a shared interest.
We also incorporated Ann Estelle into our Christmas gift swap. In the past, it was somewhat difficult to participate in, since everyone had such different interests in dolls. Now, we exchanged gifts for Ann Estelle, which makes participation easier for everyone and gives members a chance to have different things for their Ann Estelle.
Ann Estelle has had such an impact on our group that several members now have multiple Ann Estelle’s as well as Georgia’s, Gracie’s and Sophie’s.
And a very very special thanks to the Tallgrass Club of Tulsa, OK for inspiring us! |
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In the Spring 2006 issue of UFDC Doll News there was an article that inspired one of our members, to search for something to give our club a new lease on life. We were stuck in a rut. A few new members joined every year, and a few other members dropped out. We had fun but there wasn’t any great sense of excitement.
After reading the article, our member contacted a friend of hers in the Tallgrass Club (the group that the article was about), for advice. Her friend responded enthusiastically and a flurry of brainstorming took place. They came up with idea of our doing a club doll, something that the Tallgrass Club had that we did not. Our members interests were sufficiently varied that there wasn’t any one doll or even type of doll that everyone had.
After some searching, our member found Ann Estelle, by the Robert Tonner Company. She brought her idea to the club membership, and with our approval, ordered the dolls, for distribution at our biennial luncheon, with a plan to do some sort of follow-up involving the doll once all members received their dolls. Running into some problems with acquiring an affordable supply of basic dolls, we ended up turning to the Robert Tonner Company, who helped us to receive them in time for the luncheon.
And then our friends in Tulsa got busy. They decided to kick-start our club doll activities with a special gift. At the luncheon, along with our dolls, we each received a packet that contained a basic cotton reversible jumper, some matching fabric, a basic pattern set and a challenge to take our jumper and fabric and finish them into a complete outfit of our choice, with any accents, accessories and whatever else we wanted.
Now, every month, we have new challenges. We |
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The Ann Estelle Challenge |
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Twickenham Doll Club www.huntsvillealdollclub.com |
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To contact us: |
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General Doll and Club Information: Katherine Levine, 256-881-4809; katherine.reflections@juno.com Show Information Only: Barbara Jennings; bgjennings@comcast.net |
