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
Update 16th October 2015
Workshops Today we are joined by Anne Baxter and she [...]
Quilt by Karen Nicol in the Habby Dept of Liberty’s London
Karen Nicol (one of our contributors) has a quilt now hanging up in Liberty's which you can all go and see; it's in the haberdashery dept. Here are some pics and more info: To celebrate their 140th anniversary, Liberty's chose Karen ,Lou Gardiner, Amanda Fatherazi, the Shoreditch Sisters and the Darlings to each produce a quilt. The shop was built from the wood of two ships so the theme for the quilts had to be sailors tattoos...brilliant!
Forgotten Heros?
Many of us make quilts for our military hero's but one of our viewers, Dr Jacqueline Jeynes written an amazing book entitled 'Forgotten Pensioners of War; FEPOW's and their stories'; she was inspired to write this by her own father The book is a testament to everyone affected by the long, savage imprisonment of our military personnel in the Far East 1941-45, many of them like my father, just teenagers.