You win some, you lose some.

I created this piece, "Boats: After Hokusai" as an entry for the RHASS (Royal Highland Agricultural Society Show) 2013. The class was "Boats, Blackwork". Being me, I started with absolutely no idea what I was doing, so as usual, I winged it.

I started from a Hokusai print of fishermen and a pleasure boat.

It was much more detailed than I wanted, so the first thing I did was to draw it out in rough, removing the figures and some of the smaller details. Having done that, I marked the shading to highlight the darker and lighter areas before transferring the outlines to graph paper.

The next step was to add in the stitching lines. The small amount of cloud at the top was obviously the darkest area, so I decided that it was the best place to begin. I chose to create a 'stitch' based on an octagon with a square in the centre. With that drawn in I could see that the lighter areas could be created using 'partial' version of the same motif.
The boats were obviously lighter in shade than the rest of the picture so I decided that they should be completed in backstitch.

When I started to put needle and thread to linen, I did at least understand that if I had to ensure that I was not drawing threads across the back as they would show through. That was quite tricky in places and I spent a lot of time weaving through the threads on the back.

It took me 90 hours to design and stitch 'Boats'. It is worked on 28 count linen and the stitched area measures 10" by 6½".

And you lose some. It came last! Was I upset? Well, I admit I was a little peeved. It was the only piece in the class that was 'original'. On the other hand, I have to admit that while practically every other piece was the same design of a galleon under full sail, they were mostly much better stitched than my entry.

And you win some. What I won was a much better understanding of blackwork.