Quilting Country by Eric Dowdle – MasterPieces – 1000 pieces
When looking for the next puzzle to assemble, I found this little gem hiding in the back row of one of my shelves. It’s a thrift store puzzle that mom bought for us sometime last year. After assembling Quilt Blocks earlier this month, I was so pleased to find another quilt puzzle here ready for me to get going on it.
Most of the time I find that Eric Dowdle’s artwork makes for difficult puzzles, and this one is no different. It’s a bit challenging, but what else do I have to do with my time these days? A difficult assembly keeps me intensely focused on what I’m doing; and with that intense focus comes an almost meditative state where the next piece, a certain shape, or that one color is all I’m thinking about.
Jigsaw puzzles give me a welcome respite from thinking and worrying, which I seem to be doing a lot of these days. Each puzzle waiting to be assembled is hours and hours of down time for my brain – best hobby ever!
These adorable puppies were too cute to leave alone, so this puzzle went together in one day. It was a welcome distraction from a stressful situation; and as usual, I stopped thinking about what was troubling me and focused solely on pieces, shapes, and colors.
Re-marks has so many interesting collage puzzles, they’re right up there with White Mountain in my opinion. My last trip to Barnes and Noble netted me about six more of their collages, and I’m trying to ration them out to be certain they last me for a while. 🙂
This is why I’m a dog person, they give us such loyalty and unconditional love. Look at that sweet face waiting to welcome home his human.
I thought I heard my human coming down the street, is she almost here?! I’m so excited!
The look on the face of the corgi is priceless, they look so happy! In summary, all the sweet faces of dogs and interesting doorways made for a happy, colorful, completely absorbing puzzle.
That’s exactly what I’m looking for these days, how about you?
This is where I would usually show you a picture of the completed puzzle, but as you can see I’ve taken a picture of the box instead. Why? Because this puzzle had terrible quality, and once I’d put together six pieces of the edge that was all I needed. Life is too short to waste on crappy puzzles.
The entire time I was sorting my brain was telling me to really think about whether or not this was a puzzle I wanted to assemble. There were MANY pieces still attached, not because they just didn’t get broken up, but because they weren’t cut all the way through – not even close to all the way through. There were groups of 2, 3, and even 4 pieces still together, and to separate them without damaging them would have required a sharp craft knife and lots of time. 😐
The thinness of the pieces was a concern as well, I don’t ever remember a Eurographics puzzle having such thin, bendable pieces before – and there have been many a puzzle from this brand on my table through the years. If I hadn’t purchased it new myself, the quality would lead me to believe this was a dollar store puzzle.
Once I started putting the edge together I knew this puzzle was going to be horrid to assemble and that it just wasn’t worth it. The looseness of the fit was crazy, there was way too much play in the pieces.
This is the pieces pushed together tightly.
This is how much play there is within the fit. You couldn’t lift two assembled pieces.
I’m not sure exactly when Eurographics quality went downhill, but the last few puzzles of theirs that I’ve assembled have been quite disappointing. They used to have nice, thick pieces with a random cut that made for an interesting assembly. The newer puzzles I’ve assembled have had thinner pieces with only one piece shape. This puzzle just put them on my naughty list, because I absolutely cannot recommend this brand anymore.
It may seem odd to review a puzzle I haven’t completely assembled, but there were so many quality issues that I felt a responsibility to let my readers know – a review seemed to be the best way to do that. It isn’t coming as a shock, I’ve expressed disappointment with the last few Eurographics puzzles that I’ve assembled; but this was by far the worst quality puzzle of theirs I’ve ever seen.
Once I decided to review this puzzle I gathered the pieces for the two yellow butterflies and put them together to be sure about the quality of the whole puzzle. Absolutely awful. Perhaps my puzzle was just one from the very end of the run when the die is dullest, but when you put this disappointing quality together with the problems of the previous ones it all adds up to a brand that has major problems, in my opinion.
Please remember, all reviews are only one person’s opinion. I do my best to be objective, but in the end this review is only about my puzzle and my experience; take it with a grain of salt. Far be it from me to tell you what to buy or not to buy; but for myself I know there won’t be any more Eurographics puzzles in my shopping cart anytime soon. It’s such a shame too, they used to be such nice puzzles. 😥
On what was most likely my last puzzle shopping trip for quite some time I got myself a few collages. Collage puzzles are my happy place, and what I need right now are puzzles that make me happy. 💖
This collage of stamps is this first one I’ve picked to assemble, and it looks like it’s going to be great fun! Once the edge was assembled the first stamp I saw that I wanted to put together was Rosie the Riveter. She makes me smile, and also makes me think of the times we’re living in right now.
When called upon, the greatest generation did what needed to be done; men enlisted, women went to work in the factories, they rationed food, they limited their travel to save on resources for our troops, and much more. With Covid-19 running rampant across the globe, we all have to pitch in where we can – even if all we can do is stay at home when we are asked to, to help stop the spread of the virus.
As a disabled person who also has underlying conditions that make me more vulnerable, all I am really able do to pitch in and help out my community is to stay at home. All that’s being asked of me right now is to plant myself inside and stay there; I can absolutely do that without complaint.
In this unique situation in the world today everyone can help out in some way, even if the only way for us to help is to do nothing (or do puzzles) in our homes.
This little cutie was a quick assembly that was pretty entertaining. These little cereal boxes are even more fun than I thought they’d be, and I thought they were going to be pretty darn fun!
It’s always nice to have a mini puzzle as a palate cleanser in between larger puzzles; sometimes a 300 piece will do, but sometimes an even smaller one is just what the doctor ordered when I’m not feeling well. If only there were more 100 or 200 piece puzzles with more grownup images out there for us to choose from.
I’m putting these together in reverse order of how much I like the cereal. I’m not really a fan of fruity tasting cereals (other than Cap’n Crunch’s Crunchberries), so that’s why this one is near the bottom of the list. Trix was the second of the six mini puzzles from this set put together so far, and I’m completely happy with both the images and the quality.
My Jigsaw Journal 