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
Royal School of Needlework celebrates being 140 years old!
The Royal School of Needlework, the pinnacle of British craftsmanship, celebrates 140 years of keeping the traditional art of hand embroidery alive This year the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) celebrates 14 decades of teaching, practising and promoting hand embroidery. 140 years ago the RSN’s first student enrolled on 5 November 1872 and today over 1000 students a year learn traditional hand embroidery on our thriving education programme whilst our Embroidery Studio continues to offer a unique UK-based service for hand embroidery commissions and restoration projects.
September 2012
We start the month with part 1 of our wander [...]
Quilt retreat in Amarillo – Texas
VAL: I met Kendall while she was visiting/shopping at(!) Creative Quilting and if anyone is planning to be in Texas maybe for the quilt show this might be of interest to be tacked on the end – great value it would seem once you are there! From Kendall Harman:
The next quilt retreat I am organizing is Oct. 26-28.