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
Giant crocheted doily appears under Bristol bridge
The 12ft (3.6m) diameter "spider web" was seen hanging under Stapleton Road railway bridge by Gail Boyle as she drove into work . click here to learn more Thanks to Paul for finding this - great fun
Justhands-on.tv Sewing Getaway Weekend
Car is loaded with quilts and fabric and ready to go - just need to pack the suitcase; Dunford House (our venue in Midhurst - find out more in the classified ads) is full to bursting; Jennie will be teaching her Superstar Medallion quilt; Myfanwy will be showing her students how to use the embellisher (and we have one to play with for the rest of us with the opportunity of getting a Janome embellisher of our own at a VERY GOOD price - exclusive to Justhands-on.tv) plus bringing her Winifrid Cottage shop of goodies: Val will be making quick quilts with her students using up Fat 1/4s; and Wendy will be making sure it all runs smoothly for us.
8th Prague Patchwork Meeting Competitions
For those of you interested in competing here are the details of the competitions and the dates of the events: Authors of the topics for 2014 are members of the traditional patchwork club BPK. The artist collection (this time Embroidered Surfaces) will be replaced with MOTHER NATURE, the technique is not limited. The traditional patchwork compe-tition will be featuring APPLICA-TION as one of the basic tech-niques in every basic workshop.