I recently received a lovely photo from a quilting wonder named Rose Castanon. She and her friend created a pretty Our Lady of Guadalupe quilt for a raffle at church. (The proceeds benefit the religious education program at her parish.)
After they finished the quilt, they used a Paper Dali doodle for the label and prayer to put on the quilt. She emailed me asking permission for the use of the doodle... and, of course, I said yes! Just send me a picture.
And she did:
One of the sweetest joys of creating art for Paper Dali is seeing how some of my free doodles and drawings get used by craft-loving folks. So, thanks for sending this, Rose.
And here's a look at the quilt she finished with her friend:
I recently had a post about the importance of doodling. A couple of teachers chimed in with their thoughts, and I felt compelled to share them here.
What strikes me as some kind of wonderful is that they understand that the most important fact is that a student is learning and absorbing information. Crummy teachers make it all about themselves, whether everyone is looking at them, whether they are like the star on the stage, whether their students are transfixed by them. Excellent teachers are ones whose primary focus is to impart knowledge and encourage their students to use their brains and learn material in the manner that works best for the students. And if that's doodling, so be it!
Their comments:
"Thanks for posting this! I have always been a believer in doodling, and encourage my youth that I've given journals to to doodle freely during our catechetical sessions (I always present them with unlined journals/sketchbooks so they'll think outside the lines, as it were). My experience has always been that people that doodle actually engage much better in learning than those that are looking at their watches, drumming their fingers, counting the minutes to their next meal, etc. Yay, doodling!" (from Wayhip)
"Just wanted to say that one of my students is now going to be taking doodling to the next level and using his gift of drawing to create a 'graphic essay' for Captain Blood! Drawing is allowing him to tap into his analytical ability in a way that writing does not provide. He will still be doing some writing, but the emphasis will be on the artwork." (from Persephone Writes)
A writing instructor, my sister Angela recently told her high school students how doodling is important to their education. Write in your books! Draw along the margin! Mark them up! Underline, highlight, scribble!
I gave her a fist bump when she told me that. I'm a huge proponent of doodling. (Yep, I even signed the Doodle Manifesto.) The importance of doodling cannot be underestimated in the process of learning.
If you only have about five minutes, here's a quick fun TED talk about the history and importance of doodling from Sunni Brown, a leader in the Doodle Revolution: (If you'd rather look at images instead, you can see her slide deck from another talk, which hits the same important points.)
If you have some time, I highly recommend checking out the fantastic Doodle Revolution site. You'll get a glimpse of how people use doodles to process huge amounts of information, plan ideas, and make sense of the world around them. (You might spot a familiar name in the Showcase, too.)
A writing instructor, my sister Angela recently told her high school students how doodling is important to their education. Write in your books! Draw along the margin! Mark them up! Underline, highlight, scribble! 
... and please do NOT offer my works as downloads from your site.
