Since I have recently gone slightly crazy and purchased the world’s largest commercially available jigsaw puzzle, I decided I should document my progress. A blog seems the easiest way for family, friends and anyone else interested to see how it’s coming along, and how I’m handling my new-found insanity!

The gorgeous 40,320 piece puzzle Disney Unforgettable Moments arrived this week on Monday, September 26. There was much excitement and picture taking as we unboxed the behemoth puzzle. It feels overwhelming to see all the bags full of pieces and to realize how many months of puzzling are ahead of me to finish this bad boy!

My fantastic husband helped me to make a board to work this puzzle on, measuring 5 feet by 4 feet, plenty of room for each section to be completed. I found some gorgeous suede-like fabric on clearance at Joann Fabrics that was perfect for the cover. I purchased enough material to cover a smaller board (4′ x 3′) and 2 large boards (5’x 4′) for about $12. We bought a 4′ x 8′ sheet of sub-flooring (luan) for about $13, and cut it into the 2 sizes I wanted. We glued the material on the boards and for about $25 total I now have 2 beautiful jigsaw boards, and they are very nice for working puzzles. The smaller board will fit puzzles up to approximately 3000 pieces. The larger one is primarily for my Disney monster, but will also be needed for some 4000 piece Heye puzzles recently purchased.

I decided I should begin the puzzle with the scene from Snow White, might as well start the puzzle with the very first Disney movie! I sorted the pieces on Monday evening and Tuesday during the day. I wasn’t able to sit and sort for very long at a time, so it was done in fits and spurts throughout the day. (Those of you who know me know that I was injured at work 2 years ago and have been dealing with continued pain that makes it difficult to sit, stand or walk for very long.)

My plan is to transfer each section onto large pieces of cardboard after they are completed, and to cover and wrap them up tightly. Once I have all 10 sections assembled we are planning to go to the fellowship hall of my parents church to assemble the entire puzzle – they have plenty of floor space to work with! I have not decided what to do with the entire puzzle once it has been completed, but I feel confident that I have lots of time to decide, this is absolutely not a puzzle you can finish in a week or two.

Day 3 of the marathon was the first actual jigsaw puzzle work, putting pieces together! I thought I would be able to begin the way I usually start a puzzle – by assembling the edges. The edge pieces were so similar in color and shape it was extremely difficult. After a couple of hours of trial and error I decided that starting somewhere else would be the best idea. So I decided to begin with yellow pieces which were Snow White’s skirt, and Dopey’s shirt. Below is the progress at the end of the day.

This is about 3 hours of assembly. It’s difficult to keep track as I am sitting and working on it for short periods of time throughout the day.

Thursday, September 29 I worked on the red pieces; Charming’s cloak, Snow White’s sleeves and hairbow, and Grumpy’s coat. It isn’t impressive to look at, but I was proud of my progress at the end of the day 🙂

I haven’t finished working on the puzzle for today yet, I will post today’s progress once I’m done. The family will be off to bed soon, which is the best puzzling time. No interruptions!

I hope to be able to update daily, or at least every other day on my progress. I will also be working on other puzzles, mostly as a “palate cleanser” so I don’t get too overwhelmed by the enormity of my task. I plan on posting photos of those puzzles as well. I hope you enjoy the pictures and posts!

Welcome to My Jigsaw Journal!