Something in the act of becoming

Work in progress on the Cromwell Narrative Cloth

I went into my studio this morning to be greeted by Stephen Gardiner, scowling. Which was a good thing. A very good thing.

I was worrying about my Cromwell Narrative Cloth last week. The size. The scope. The slow progress. The realisation that I needed more background quilting for strength. A seemingly insurmountable problem about joining the first 6 feet onto the next 6 feet.¹ And on and on. As a stitcher who can - honestly - say 99 times out of 100 that I never get stressed about my sewing, this was somewhat disconcerting.

But there is an explanation. I had migraine last week. During the run up to the pain part of this condition, I can have difficulties with spatial and cognitive awareness. Hence lying awake at 3am, worrying away about adding seed quilting to stop a bit of sagging, whether I had the right thread, how on earth I was going to find the time, would outline quilting be better? No.

At 3am, during migraine prodrome, all this felt far too complicated.

It isn’t of course. Seed quilting doesn’t require too much thought and I can add to it in odd moments, while continuing work on more complicated parts of the piece when I am most alert. And while it might mean that the project overall will take longer to complete, that’s not really a problem. It will look better for it, and will handle more easily.

But back to Stephen Gardiner. His scowl greeted me in the studio today and I was delighted to see him. And his fellows. As I looked around the space, I could see numerous parts of the Cromwell Narrative Cloth in various stages of becoming. No part is fully complete yet, but that’s as it should be - each element involves a complicated set of processes, and that’s reflected in the different stages of the work to date. Gardiner himself needs his colours made permanent. There’s a Henry who is painted but not quilted, and whose beard is too red. A Wolsey who is painted and part quilted. Three Katherines, all stitched but two are not yet painted, and are currently headless. Three young Cromwells in Italy stitched and partially painted but with no faces yet. There’s a huge panel of ladies dancing as part of the masque of the Chateau Vert. They need a couple of tweaks and a bit of retouching of colour, and then they are done. And then there’s the first six feet of the 1500 section - which is currently getting some background quilting attention at home.

There are all sorts of technical challenges with this piece but it is growing. It’s work in progress - or, in the way that Hilary Mantel describes a sleepless Thomas Cromwell, awake in the night while staying at Wolf Hall, I can sense “something in the act of becoming. It will arrive with the morning light.” ²

1. The problem is not in fact insurmountable. I solved it today. I have no idea at all why I was so worried about it.

2. Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies, Falcons