Dr Bea Stitches

Artist Unveils Cromwell-Inspired Textiles in Major Exhibition at The Hive | Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce A decade-long journey of creativity, literature, and archival discovery will be unveiled at The Hive in Worcester, as textile artist Dr Lucie Bea Dutton

I suspect Cromwell would approve of the Chamber of Commerce taking an interest in the Stitching Cromwell exhibition..

A stitched portrait of a Tudor man, with long hair wearing a cap. He is in profile.

Thomas Cromwell looks into his future.

Never did any lady conduct herself with greater prudence and dignity than this ill-treated princess Reading Agnes Strickland’s Lives of the Queen’s of England

I wrote about Anna of Cleves, Agnes Strickland, and stitching an admirable lady.

Very much looking forward to exhibiting #StitchingCromwell @worcesteruni.bsky.social next week! Come along and see me; I’ll be stitching in The Hive Monday to Friday.

Limited seats still available for June, we’re almost full for event.

While we're on historical parallels, I'm thinking today of Tudor lord Walter Hungerford, whose wife's complaints of domestic abuse were ignored until his patron Thomas Cromwell got in trouble. Only then did people start paying attention. He went to the block in 1540 alongside Cromwell.

oh god. It's going to be a day in which we are forced to tap the 'the world didn't start in 1900' sign every five minutes, isn't it?

Anyway, stop firing your premodernists, stop making them feel irrelevant, stop making them do just the introduction sessions of 'the real' history.

Tfw you didn't study much medieval history at school

Nicky’s constant calls for “Cousin Eleanor”… oh dear. What have they done to one of my favourite characters!

Oh goodness. I had to read the shooting script for the #ReluctantWidow for a book chapter I wrote a few years ago. The script is even more bizarre than the final film. I seem to recall that it started with a shot of Napoleon. All very odd.

the loss of the World Service would be a tragedy and huge lost of soft power for Britain

Such outrages on common decency Reading Agnes Strickland’s Lives of the Queen’s of England

I wrote about Agnes Strickland’s opinions of Jane Seymour. And some carnations.

A close up image of a quilted art piece. In the centre is a stitched representation of Henry VIII’s signature, and in the middle of the signature is a heart containing the letters AB.

For a day of hearts: initials inside a heart.

Included in the First Wolf Hall Quilt (2020-2021): inspired by a letter from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn, referenced in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, and now held in the Vatican Archives.

photograph by Michael Wicks

A stitched face in profile of a man wearing a Tudor hat emerges from a piece of cream calico. The stitching is quilting so there is some texture.

“He comes into his hall to find versions of himself in various stages of becoming: a tentative outline, partly inked in. Where to begin with Cromwell?”
- Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

When I stitch a portrait I usually leave the face until the very end. For Cromwell, the stitching started with the face.

Wolf Hall Weekend (@wolfhallweekend) Some responses to Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy are analytical. Others are devotional. @Bea Stitches’ work belongs to a rarer category: it answers Mantel in another medium entirely.

Stitching Cromwell exhibition Monday 2 - Friday 6 March; and Lecture Wednesday 4 March at 4.30pm. The Hive, Worcester.

I'd watch a muppet show movie where the muppets infiltrate an academic conference.

“Have you ever been through any form of marriage or civil partnership to each other or anyone else in this or any other country?”

It is not down in any map; true places never are.

A poster showing a forest scene and the following exhibition information: FITZROVIA CHAPEL: 23 - 26 February 2026 Marchlands: The Space Between Elizabeth Waight Free admission Booking not needed Mon 23rd: 2pm to 6pm Tues 24th: 11am to 5pm Private View: 6pm to 8pm Wed 25th: 11am to 6pm Thurs 26th: 11am to 2pm The Fitzrovia Chapel 2 Pearson Square London WIT 3BF FitzroviaChapel.org Marchlands.co.uk

Some news I’m so happy to share. An exhibition to launch my new business www.marchlands.co.uk Excited and scared in equal measure to be going out on my own! #exhibition #london #allwelcome

Metal Film reel cans containing the 35mm print of The Reluctant Widow. There are 5 cans piled on top of each other.

I watched it to save others from it…

“The Enchantments of Poetry and Romance” Reading Agnes Strickland’s Lives of the Queen’s of England

Agnes Strickland, Anne Boleyn, and Stitching Cromwell.

It’s me! Talking about Stitching Cromwell with friends @guildmedmak.bsky.social!

A royal Shakespeare company ticket for Wolf Hall, dated 1 February 2014, lying on a piece of cream calico on which a pencil sketch has been made of the face of a woman wearing a gable hood.

Just came across this ticket in my studio. On the train back to London the following day, I said to my beloved “I’m going to stitch that.” 12 years later, I’m still stitching Cromwell. I’m just making a start on my latest Cromwell Trilogy piece, a full length portrait of Jane Seymour.

Doesn't he know that women eat the rage that this induces for breakfast, to make themselves even more powerful and terrifying to small men like this one?

I hope the countless women archivists, historians, and annals keepers over the centuries haunt his dreams.

Bookshop sign

Some good news, though, if anyone has mislaid medieval Britain.

STITCHING CROMWELL EXHIBITION:

I’m giving a public lecture, “Stitching the World within and without Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell Trilogy”, at the Hive,
@worcesteruni.bsky.social on Weds 4 March. There will be a Stitching Cromwell exhibition all week.

e-services.worcestershire.gov.uk/LibraryEvent...

A stitched depiction of a white woman wearing a crown and carrying a sceptre. Her image is stitched in outline but her face is painted.

A stitched depiction of a white woman wearing a crown and carrying a sceptre. Her image is stitched in outline but her face is painted. Around the edge of the portrait, the words Two of Six to Eight are stitched, and the dates 1533-1536.

Anna Regina (2026). Anne Boleyn in her Coronation robes, the second in the Thomas Cromwell’s Four Queens series of 6ft portraits.

4 Jan 1540: Representatives of #Cleves swear #otd that Anne had not previously been married to the Duke of #Lorraine #otd - and so the nuptial wheels move on... (TCC)

“Neat stitching… Who did this?” My Substack home, The Thread of her Tale, has picked up a lot of new subscribers in recent weeks.

In preparation for this year’s #WolfCrawl with @simonhaisell.bsky.social I wrote about Stitching Cromwell and how the archives find their way into each week’s slow read.

I finished this earlier today. Absolutely loved it. I can’t wait for the next volume.