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
Folded Potholder
I love the folded potholder you demonstrated. I will eventually get around to making one for myself but for now i really would like to make one as a 16" pillow topper. Can it be done that large and in a square shape as opposed to the round? Answer: The answer is yes you can make this bigger - you will need more squares to fold into the pointy shape on each round - from 8 you will then need 16 and you might even have to go up to 32 per round!);
and then to turn it into a square I suggest you use bigger squares (gives you more fudge factor!) select a point for the first one and add to the opposite side and the opposing quadrants (say north, south east and west) (but you could have marked this out on your foundation piece first)
There is quite a bit of fabric and will feel quite heavy - just so you know If you would like to enjoy the workshop: click here:
Fun at Cae Hir Gardens, West Wales
Despite the wet, Matt managed to have fun
Traffic Pattern quilt
Pat was the lucky winner of the Boys quilt pattern a few months back, donated by Kids & Co.. I have now finished the "traffic" quilt that I won in one of your competitions and have sent you a picture from my iphone - hope it arrives ok. It really came out well and looked stunning. Thank you. It was well received by mother father and child!! I felt very proud of it - thanks to all of your teaching over the years. and she plans to make two more for the other grandchildren! Happy Sewing
(we have Bugsy and Alphabet Jungle from this range available in the shop)