About Vendulka
Vendulka Battais is an award winning textile artist, tutor and half of the couple running textile studio OliVen in the heart of Suffolk.
Vendulka started her creative journey making clothes from remnants with her mum in the Czech Republic. She learned simple patchwork when she moved to the UK and was looking for a new hobby. From squares and triangles, Vendulka’s work evolved into quilting, embroidery, and circular patterns inspired by mandalas and dreamcatchers.
It was this growing passion which led her to start her own patchwork and quilting shop with her partner, Olivier, on the Isle of Wight in 2011. It’s called OliVen. In 2015, they moved family and shop to the village of Monks Eleigh in Suffolk.
Vendulka loves to make patchwork quilts, teach patchwork in the shop, travel to teach groups and demonstrate at shows.
Somehow she found the time to publish a wonderful book, Cathedral Windows – New Views, and win the Best in Show Award at Festival of Quilts 2021. This is what the judges had to say about the work: “a wonderful collaboration of design and workmanship. We loved the variety of feathers and their balance of glorious colour. A masterclass in the stitching of an intricate Mandala, together with precise use of the glitter liner medium.”
Signature Technique
Bringing embroidery into quilting
Top Tips
- Glittery and metallic paint on fabric brings a project to life – especially in the dark!
- Create an enhanced 3D effect on Cathedral windows with folded patchwork, padding, and a new colour twist.
- Combine different elements such as machine quilting and hand embroidery. It’s a joy to work on and the result is stunning.
Videos
Patterns
Posts
Filming day at a Fluff-a-torium in Dorking
What a brilliant day we had - Matt Dave and I - in Dorking with Gillian Harris in her shop Gilliangladrag at Fluff-a-torium in West Street. Gillian is the queen of felting so we got to learn how she makes wet-felt; adds some decorative needlefelting; learnt about the kits she sells and then a great tour of the shop -so keep watching!
Fun with Kathleen Laurel-Sage
Had a really lovely day yesterday being the 'student' in the Wonky Houses class that was held at Creative Quilting (Bridge Road E.Molesey) ; Front and back and FINISHED!!!!!! We all had a great time and Kathleen is a really fun teacher who loves sharing her skills; we will be inviting her to share her soldering skills at a Justhands-on.tv retreat soon - so keep in touch!
New Subscription Web Pages
Some of you have noticed that when we send you an email about subscribing to the website, sometimes the webpage you go to looks a little bit different to what you expect to see at justhands-on.tv.
The reason behind this is that we are using a new subscription system for fixed term subscriptions (ie 1,3,6 and 12 month packages) to make it easier for you to subscribe.