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
Festival of Quilts 2010 – day 3
Val: Wow another busy day and that glass of wine is really very appealing. It is really so exciting to be surrounded by so much inspiration and that obviously shows in the spending; I do hope that all that good intention doesn't fade on the way home. Those who come by coach must have a great time comparing shopping notes!
Festival of Quilts 2010 – day 2
Val: Well my day to wander round, organised the filming for Sunday, do some shopping and see the quilts - a treat I've not had in years. Still very busy and still lots of overseas visitors. Got chatting over coffee (as you do when every seat counts) to a couple of ladies who had picked up Karin Hellaby's new Pinapple book. I'd also been accosted - always in the nicest possible way - on the shuttle bus from the hotel by a lady who was volunteering on the Roses from the Heart exhibition - an exhibition not to be missed she said and she was right. Definitely one for the cameras on Sunday. (Nothing to do with roses and everything to do with creating a bonnet memorial for convinct women and their babies that were shipped off to Tasmania). More information can be found at www.christinahenri.com.au.