Yesterday was an awful day, and I didn’t even get started on this one until last night. I made a bit of progress before I ended up going to bed though, it’s looking pretty good!
Quilts are a funny thing, there are many fabrics that I wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole, but you put them into a quilt and they look perfectly normal. Great even! Does anyone else feel that way?
As I was laying out the pieces and looking at some of the patterns and colors, I thought to myself “That is the ugliest fabric!”, and “Ugh, that is a hideous color.”. But you put them together with other fabrics and they seem to make sense, and even become part of a beautiful pattern.
Oh well, I suppose beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. 😍
Fresh Picked Flowers by Jane Maday – Sunsout – 500 pieces
The beautiful, bright colors of this image made this puzzle so much fun; and the quality was so much better than the previous Sunsout puzzle that I assembled. Don’t you love it when a puzzle is so much better than you anticipated? I do!
The last Sunsout puzzle I assembled – Rainy Day Sketch – was purchased at the same time, from the same store. The difference in quality between the two was striking – and that is NOT a good thing. When you don’t know for sure what you’re going to get, it makes it difficult to trust that you’re getting your money’s worth. I’m not a fan of having to guess or gamble when it comes to the quality of the puzzles I buy.
Fresh Picked Flowers had very good quality, in fact I was surprised at how good. Having had a much different experience with the previous Sunsout puzzle, I was dreading this one a little bit thinking it would be equally as disappointing. Thank goodness that wasn’t the case! This puzzle had thick pieces with a very good variety of shapes, and a truly wonderful fit. As you can see the reproduction is bright and crisp, with clean lines – it was a joy to work with.
For some reason the dullest colored thing in the puzzle, this brown bird (I have no idea what species this is), was one of the things I really enjoyed putting together. For some reason I can’t really express this bird was lovely to assemble.
This bowl of cherries is bright and fun, and was really challenging too. When I look at it the first thing that comes to mind is Erma Bombeck; she was a humorist and columnist that I used to really enjoy reading when I was younger. I’m sure if I had one of her books here now it would still make me laugh. She had a book entitled “If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What am I Doing in the Pits?” and it seems to pop into my brain whenever I see this.
The artwork by Jane Maday made for an excellent puzzling experience, and the quality of the puzzle itself was wonderful to work with. If only all Sunsout puzzles could be this good! If by some miracle you find this puzzle out there, it’s definitely recommended. I loved it. 💖
Such a pretty picture – and it was pretty difficult too! I knew it would be going in of course, I just didn’t know how much. The brush strokes made it quite a challenge; but being the puzzle goddess that I am, I finally triumphed! I’m pretty proud of myself for finishing the pretty picture. 😁
The quality of this Milton Bradley puzzle was good/fair. The pieces were on the thinner side, and some were easily or already bent when I opened the box. The fit was good, if somewhat loose, and the image reproduction was good. Overall I found it a bit disappointing, but of course that is just one person’s opinion; you may find that the quality is perfectly acceptable for you, and in the end that is what matters most. For myself though, I don’t think another new purchase of a 1000 piece Milton Bradley puzzle is in the cards for me unless the image was fabulous and I just couldn’t live without it.
All the pretty flowers that look so beautiful in front of Mill Cottage were just blobs of paint. I suppose, when you think about it, basically all paintings are just blobs of color the closer you get to them; but these little blobs of color were very difficult to assemble. I should know better than to buy puzzles like this, brush strokes and blobs are no fun for me!
I loved this little guy, he was one of the first things I assembled. It looks like he’s trying to get the attention of the girl on the shore, and maybe he’s trying to impress her. How sweet. Lovesick little boys are pretty cute, good thing we little girls know how to handle them. 👧
It’s interesting what you see in the details when you’re assembling a puzzle. The way colors and patterns look close up is often much different than what you imagine them to be; and you can sometimes recognize something that really isn’t there.
The puzzle of my wedding picture, Stacey & David, is currently on my board. While I was putting together the train of my dress I saw this, and my mind immediately saw something I’ve never seen before when looking at my wedding pictures.
Do you see Batman in the negative space?
At first I stared at the dark area between the scalloped hem of my dress and the train and thought, “What in the world is that?” Then my brain determined that it looked like the profile of The Caped Crusader and I said – out loud to an empty room – “Holy crap it’s Batman!”
Are these just the crazed ravings of an unbalanced menopausal woman whose brain is slowly being cooked by hot flashes? Or do you see it too?
Cottages (4) by Kim Leo – Cra-Z-Art – 125/500 pieces
And now we’ve come to the close of our trip down cottage lane, and wasn’t it fun? I hope you readers have enjoyed it as much as I have. I think each little piece of artwork deserves to be appreciated, and have had a great time showing them all!
For those of you wondering, the quality of these puzzles is pretty good. The pieces are on the thinner side, but they’re sturdy and have a very nice variety of shapes. They fit together well, if perhaps slightly loosely, and as you can see the image reproduction is lovely with bright colors, crisp lines, and no fuzziness or blurry areas. The added colored backing seems to make it so that the die doesn’t cut all the way through on every piece, and each little puzzle had several pieces still attached. It wasn’t too terrible though, and just a little tug was all that was needed to separate them.
I’m calling this one Heart House, because there are hearts everywhere! From the weather vane at the top of the house to paving stones in the walkway – hearts, hearts, and more hearts! Some of them are easy to miss, did you see the heart on the trim boards at the top of the house? So sweet! How about the X’s and O’s hanging off the porch roof? Hugs and kisses for everyone. This is in my top 3 of the entire set, love it! 😍
Here’s another one with an autumn look to it, the Butternut Bakery. I love the little seating area near the top of the building, and the birdhouse too. Did you notice the weather vane? It’s a rolling pin! The small details like that are adorable; I really do love the work of this artist – it makes me smile. 🙂
And lastly is the Sea Breeze Inn, doesn’t this look like a wonderful place for a weekend at the beach? I’m not a fan of sand, so I don’t think I’d be doing much at the beach, but it looks like a lovely place to sit on the porch and relax. All they need is a table there so I could work on a puzzle or two – then it would be perfect! 🧩
Did you notice? This is the only cottage without a cat!
My Jigsaw Journal 