Kanji Completion! Happiness for all!

So here we have another finish.   The kit is by Dimensions and its appropriately called Happiness. It's on 14 count mesh canvas.  I knew this one wouldn't take too long once I got going on it again.  I'd say it probably took me less than a week of actual work, but it was actually about twice that long to finish as I kept getting distracted from it, much as I did for the years I had it in Japan.  I did a lot of the stitching while watching Criminal Minds, which makes me really happy, despite what a depressing show it can be, so I felt that was appropriate. 

As I said before I really hate mesh canvas.  It was really hard for me to keep my stitches even, and to me (and probably only to me) parts of it look really bad.  Apparently I need some sort of frame, but its such a small project I wasn't going to go out and invest in something just for this.  I do have two more needlepoint projects that I really want to turn out well, so I may have to look into something.  I much prefer working on plastic canvas to this stuff as it is stiffer and easier to work with. 

This was also my first time working from a pattern that was not exactly charted.  I'm used to cross stitch, where every stitch is carefully mapped out and you count and make sure they go in the right place.  With this kit the background pattern is stamped on.  The only precise pattern I had was for the black stitching of the kanji and the letters.  The rest of the pattern didn't have a grid.  It looked more like a color by number pattern.  It gave the general area and shape that each color would make.  So instead of counting a lot, I just had to eyeball the stamped pattern and stitch accordingly. 

I found this much easier to do in natural light.  After doing the kanji in the center I did the red borders and then started with the darkest yellow which was the easiest to see.  I kept going to lighter shades until I got to the last two and then switched to the lightest color since there was less of it.  Telling the last two colors apart was almost impossible in artificial light.  They were just too close. 

I actually changed a few things with the pattern in regard to the back stitch.  I decided not to backstitch the kanji.  In the picture that came with the pattern it just looks messy in some places where the stitches don't line up exactly.  It doesn't look fluid and beautiful like kanji should.  I thought it looked just fine without the back stitching, so I didn't do it.  Also, they only wanted me to use one strand of thread for the backstitching on the corners and the border.  I did one corner, and hated it.  You couldn't even see the detail.  I showed it to my fiancé and mother and neither of them could even tell I'd worked on that section till I told them.  So I ripped it out, added another strand and started again.  It looks so much better. 

Since I didn't have to count, or even consult the pattern much I think this went together much faster than I'm used to with cross stitch.  But the lack of precision also made it frustrating in different ways.  Overall I'm just glad to have another project finished.  I'm not sure what to do with this one, so I might just try to find a nice little frame for it. 

I'm also a bit curious about what to do with all of my leftover thread.  With all of the projects I've finished I have some stuff left over, and each company seems to have their own special color code, so its not like I can just add it to my DMC stash.  I will keep it of course, but I have no idea how to lable or store it other than to just have a bag of leftover scraps.