Tuesday 12-27-16 50% Done!

On December 27, 2016 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, World's Largest Puzzle Progress3 Comments

It’s finished! For the second time! Hooray!! I guess that means once I’m all done I will have completed a 40,320 piece puzzle, but will have assembled 44,352 pieces. 😮 (This is assuming I will NOT be idiotic enough to drop another puzzle)

I completed it in 7 days this time because I totally cheated. I had the picture I had taken of the completed puzzle on my computer and I just zoomed in (THANK GOD FOR DIGITAL PHOTOS) and then I knew what pieces I was looking for. I have to say it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as actually working the puzzle, it felt a little like paint by numbers. But I wasn’t looking for fun or satisfying – I just wanted it finished!

So I am now officially halfway done with the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle! I’m really proud of myself!

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Up next, The Little Mermaid. There is a LOT of blue, but the colors are bright and there are several characters to break up the monotony of water and trees. This one will be fun too! I’m very much looking forward to going back to my routine – taking my time, enjoying the assembly and not working frantically like a bunny to finish it. I’m not sure how long it will take me to sort, so perhaps tomorrow or Thursday I’ll be back to daily updates.

🙂 I’m halfway done, Mowgli and friends are safely stored with the other 4 sections and taped up tight under my bed! WOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂

Ethel The Gourmet

On December 26, 2016January 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I enjoy Charles Wysocki’s puzzles and this one was no different. He has such a great sense of humor with the cat puzzles! I enjoy his Americana puzzles as well, there’s something about the symmetry and lines and colors that is just calming and beautiful.

The Buffalo puzzles fit together really well, and I always enjoy their special zig zag pieces. It’s nice to have interesting piece shapes every now and then. Buffalo as usually comes with a poster, which is quite nice when there are two people working – one can use the box and the other gets the poster.

I’m not sure why but hubby helped with almost all of this puzzle, he really seemed to enjoy it. Odd, because he is definitely NOT a cat person and he usually only helps near the end of puzzles. But he and I enjoyed working on this one, and it was a pleasure to put together!

The Few And The Proud

On December 25, 2016 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I can finally put this puzzle on the blog, because I assembled, glued and framed it for my husband for Christmas. My marine likes it very much, or he’s being nice and saying that he does like an intelligent man!

I have to say I’m not a fan of Sunsout puzzles, this puzzle especially. The cut didn’t seem to be completely through the cardboard because there were “hanging chads” on every piece which got in the way a lot of the time and had to be removed. Also I am not a fan of puzzles that you have to really push hard to get the pieces together. To me it feels like if I have to work this hard it probably doesn’t fit. Just my personal preference. And this puzzle was DARK. Very dark. I knew that when I ordered it, but when you add in the way you have to work to get the pieces together it was a chore to finish the puzzle.

If it hadn’t been a gift I most likely wouldn’t have finished it. I had done Sunsout puzzles before and knew it wouldn’t be the most enjoyable assembly, but they were the only company with this image and I really wanted to do this puzzle for my husband. So I whined and complained but I got it done and it really does like quite nice framed. Hubby likes it, so it was all worth it. 🙂

I will add, though, that we have found a few Sunsout puzzles at the thrift store, and sometimes the quality of the pieces is quite good. We have a 1500 piece Sunsout puzzle where the pieces seem to fit more normally and the quality of the cut seems 100% better. I guess for me I would only purchase this brand if I could see the actual pieces and how they fit together first. So it’ll likely be only from thrift stores that I get Sunsout. Again, just my personal opinion.

Glorious Vintage

On December 24, 2016 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another Aimee Stewart, cause it’s just gorgeous! Ravensburger really is my favorite brand of puzzle. Always a pleasure with such wonderful feeling thick pieces and gorgeous colors.

This puzzle was way more difficult than I thought, and took me longer than the average 1000 piece. Still, I’m stubborn as anything and the end result is beautiful. Aimee Stewart’s shelf puzzles are all just stunning, I believe I own them all and only have 1 left to assemble. To be honest, I didn’t really look closely at this one before I purchased it. I saw it was an Aimee Stewart shelf by Ravensburger, loved the colors and ordered it. When it arrived I was a little shocked that it was about wine, and shocked that I ordered a puzzle without knowing the subject of it!

Excellent quality pieces, and piece fit; just an all around fun puzzle to assemble even with the extra challenge of all the green areas.

I Love Great Britain

On December 23, 2016March 22, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

My first Gibson puzzle. If I hadn’t found the Jigsaw Junkies website I would probably not even know about some of these puzzle companies. The brand comparison on that site gave me confidence to try new companies I hadn’t before, because I knew what kind of quality I would be getting.

I enjoyed the Gibson brand which is another puzzle with a waxy finish. The pieces are thick and sturdy, although there are a lot of the 2 prong 2 hole pieces. It would be nice to have a few more piece shapes to work with. The image and colors were sharp and bright, and the artwork by Mike Jupp is so fun!

I would be careful if you’re going to get a Gibson puzzle and try to choose an image that doesn’t have too much sameness. There were a couple times even in this busy puzzle where the pieces fit but were not in the correct place. Other than that I like this brand very much!