I Love America

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I Love America by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

This was an “okay” assembly for me, for some reason I wasn’t as entertained as one would hope. I chose this puzzle only because I was looking for a patriotic puzzle for July 4th, not because I was really wanting to put this one together. Mood definitely affects how much I enjoy a puzzle, and I was definitely in the wrong mood for this one.

The quality of this puzzle left a bit to be desired, which is a bit of a bummer because I just took advantage of a sale on their website and ordered a few puzzles. Here’s hoping they’re much better quality than this one. The fit was a little floppy and care had to be taken when moving pieces around, in addition the image reproduction seemed fuzzy in many parts and it was very difficult to distinguish between the darker pieces. A horse, a chocolate chip cookie, a group of beer bottles, and the rocks near a lighthouse – they all seemed to be the same blotchy colors and it was hard to know what went where. It wasn’t terrible quality, but it wasn’t great either. It was passable.

Love the look of a lighthouse, but I’m wondering, why is this “American”? Aren’t lighthouses used around the world? Or is it just this specific lighthouse? Can anyone tell me where this is?

NASA, muscle cars, Betty Boop, Moon Pies, Disney World and what we call football – now there’s no question that these things are American. I enjoyed the license plates spelling out American muscle cars, it was a fun section to assemble, along with the buffalo nickel.

The flag in the shape of the country was easy enough to sort and lots of fun to put together. I wish there were more things to say about this one, but my little old lady brain is failing me at the moment – I’ve got nuthin’.

Happy Fourth of July to those who celebrate, Happy 250th Birthday America, and to everyone else, Happy Saturday!

Hummingbird’s Treasure

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Hummingbird’s Treasure – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This little beauty was more difficult than it looks, but so much fun! After seeing just how many MicroPuzzles were here that still needed to be assembled, when I was looking for a smaller piece count puzzle I decided to look through my mini puzzles to find an image that spoke to me. This gorgeous hummingbird carrying a puzzle piece caught my eye and I’m so glad it did. It’s just beautiful. 😍

The image made for an interesting assembly. There were several times that I placed pieces that I was sure were correct, but they were not. If I had picked up the pieces and checked the back I would have seen that it wasn’t the correct placement, but I don’t always do that. Many people these days seem to be calling these “false fits” online, I do not. I call it putting a piece where it doesn’t belong. If a piece can fit into a spot that doesn’t mean it belongs there, many pieces can be made to fit in many places. A true false fit is when there are multiple pieces that are exactly the same shape and can fit perfectly in more than one spot. Placing a piece incorrectly is just that, not necessarily a false fit; you have to look at both the image and how the pieces fit together. False fit seems to be the new buzzword for puzzlers lately, and my hormonal menopausal brain finds this very annoying.

Thus endeth today’s rant.

I placed several pieces incorrectly in this puzzle; the darkness of the image in some places along with the shiny coating made it difficult for these old eyes to know for sure if the placement was true. Of course it became obvious when I tried to place adjoining pieces that I was wrong, but I found the challenge to be entertaining. This build was very enjoyable for me.

Of course when the fit is right we always try to get a picture of the puzzle on it’s edge, which hilariously (to me, anyway) has been named the “Stacey Stance” by fellow puzzle blogger Puzzle Momma, who is also my puzzle bestie Penny. I’m flattered! Getting this picture is more of a challenge when the image is oriented in portrait style like this one, but I got it done.

I absolutely adore this image, it’s so dang pretty!😍

The Golden Trio In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

The Golden Trio – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 225 pieces

I am absolutely LOVING this puzzle! It’s one of the nine (yes, nine) I purchased when I found out that Wentworth was having a sale and that all Harry Potter puzzles were 70% off. This gorgeous 225 piece puzzle was mine for less than $19! If you’re a teeny bit jealous, don’t be; as of today (July 2, 2026) the sale is still going on.😁

Normally this puzzle would have been finished yesterday, but I spent almost all day with my daughter; we went and got our hair done, she went with me to a doctor’s appointment, went to the bookstore (yes, I bought a few puzzles) and then we just spent time doing nothing together at my house. I probably only put 10 pieces into this puzzle yesterday, but it doesn’t matter one bit cause I got to spend the day with my beautiful baby girl. 💖

The cut on this puzzle seems trickier than I remember Wentworth puzzles being, and there have been several times where I absolutely could not find the right piece because I thought I knew what the shape would be – it turned out to be very wrong. It’s been so much fun! I love a good challenge, and the cut is giving me a run for my money, and I haven’t even started with most of the flowers yet. Flowers are really hard for me most of the time, I’ll let you know how it goes with these flowers everywhere.

I’m looking forward to finishing this today and seeing the completed puzzle, it’s gonna be beautiful!

Puzzle Complaints

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Puzzle Complaints by Sandra Boynton – Workman – 500 pieces

Here’s a new one for me – I checked this puzzle out of the library! My youngest asked for a ride to a library about 8 miles from home (because I don’t like for him to ride his bike that far in serious traffic), so being the fabulous momma that I am we took a ride to the library. Not wanting to sit in the car during the Florida summer while waiting, I looked around inside and to my surprise found that they have quite a few puzzles that can be checked out. I’ve been wanting to do this one for a while, so I jumped at the chance; it’s just too funny not to give it a go.

This is my first Workman puzzle, but I don’t think it’s fair to speak too much to it’s quality as it has obviously been assembled many times, and it looks like it wasn’t treated very well at some point. But I think I can confidently say if this puzzle were new it would most likely gotten a good/very good rating from me. There are a good variety of piece shapes, the image reproduction is very nice, the pieces are a good thickness and sturdy, and the backing actually feels soft if that makes sense. It’s got a blue paper on the back but it doesn’t feel “sharp” like that white paper backing on many puzzles, it actually feels soft to me. I can’t speak to the fit other than to say if it were new I think it may have been good. Again, this puzzle has been at the library for more than three years and has most likely been put together a LOT.

I had to show you this close up, it makes me smile. This puzzle was assembled with no help from the box image, so this random pieces was floating around, at first I thought I’d be able to find the pieces that went around it – no luck. Then I checked the back of the piece and it had the same backing so I figured it was definitely part of this puzzle, I just missed the surrounding pieces. It wasn’t until the very end of the assembly where I actually processed the words I had put together and tried it next to the words “quality control”, of course it fit. They did VERY well setting up the die, there was absolutely no help from any other pieces, this piece was all it’s own and fits perfectly. That can’t be very easy to do.

As I was assembling the border these pieces jumped out at me, obviously. First I thought perhaps they became delaminated and someone tried to fix them and did a crappy job. Then during the assembly I found the whole section in the upper right hand corner was warped and didn’t fit together well at all. My theory is that something was spilled on the puzzle and someone fixed it poorly; I don’t believe this had anything to do with the puzzle’s original quality at all, it was definitely user error; or as my husband calls it – an ID-10-T error. 😉

I’ve seen this image around for years and have wanted to assemble this puzzle, but not enough to spend money on it apparently. Not sure why. But finally I got the chance and I’m glad I did it. Even though this puzzle has been pre-loved a LOT it was still in relatively good shape, was missing only one piece, and it was very entertaining. I really enjoyed it!

Check out the library, there may a puzzle or two you could check out! 📚✔🧩

Nevertheless, She Persisted

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles10 Comments

Nevertheless, She Persisted by Feitzky LLC – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces

This thrift store find is a puzzle I’ve been wanting to do for a while and I finally found it. I wish I had better things to say about it, but my copy had either been VERY pre-loved and assembled many times or it was an extremely loose fit to begin with. Love the image – love it – but the fit left a bit to be desired.

Cobble Hill is a brand I consider to be towards the higher end of the quality scale: their linen paper makes for an excellent hand feel, their random cut makes for an entertaining assembly, the image reproduction has always been stellar, and the fit is usually good/very good. This puzzle may have been cut at the end of a run when the die is becoming duller making for a looser fit, I can’t be sure as this is a thrift store purchase. I still consider Cobble Hill puzzles to be very nice quality and I never hesitate to buy one if the image speaks to me.

To say I’m shocked that the puzzle is complete would be an understatement. The pieces were loose in the box, which was not taped up well at all. When I got to the checkout at the store and starting putting my puzzles on the counter I reached for the box under this one to find two puzzle pieces sitting there, they had come out of the box when I put it in my cart! The look and feel of the pieces told me they were Cobble Hill, so back into the box they went; but I was thinking about it all the way home and had convinced myself that there were going to be missing pieces in this one. When it came to putting in the last few pieces, I saw that their were four left – and four spaces – and I said, out loud, to no one, “I can’t believe it!”.

The piece shape is very prominent in this puzzle, which doesn’t at all detract from the enjoyment of the assembly for me, but does make getting a good picture difficult. I took several close up pictures of the puzzle but even close up it’s challenging to see the image behind all the lines. I wasn’t happy with any of them, even after messing with them in editing, so I’ve just taken a picture of the poster that came with the puzzle.

As a woman who supports women I love the thought behind this image. Without getting too political however, I question the inclusion of one of these women (who did NOT support females), and also the exclusion of the woman whose persistence in the face of bullies and having things “mansplained” to her before being silenced is the reason that Nevertheless, she persisted became a rallying cry for feminists. Just my own personal opinion of course – we ladies are still allowed to have our own opinions about things.

The loose fit was quite a bother to work with, but I still found myself lost in the assembly at times, completely focused on the pieces and where they went. I’m glad I finally got to assemble this puzzle and I did enjoy it, just not as much as I’d hoped. Still, Cobble Hill puzzles are good quality and I never hesitate to recommend them.