I just finished this and it is lovely!!  As I was working it my husband kept commenting on how pretty it was, and that's not common.  I did it in black on white with 2 threads on 18 count Aida.  If Blackwork is new for you I would recommend 14 count and use a single strand of thread.  The pattern gets pretty "dense" using 2 threads (I think the pattern recommends  only 1 thread), but it looks great.  The pattern is on nice heavy paper and the instructions are very clear and easy to understand.  I will do more patterns from Dragon Dreams for sure.
by: Rebecca on 1/8/2015