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
We love it that you love it
I love it ! not much more to say except that it is all so much better than the majority of the American Quilting Sites, and your new inovations are GREAT ! Gillian
Comments from an inspired viewer
Hello Valerie, The issue of trying to view the videos has been resolved. My you are a whizz kid!! Have just viewed your stripey quilt "how to" and Valentina's painted landscape using Bondaweb and I am itching to have a go, I drove to my nearest stockist for Bondaweb earlier today through sleet and snow in the hope that I would see the video and know how to go about it.
Card Trick from Joyce
Block 7 Card Trick.(from the Your First Sampler Quilt series running on the site) It WAS challenging but at the end I was successful. Thanks a lot Joyce: