The Sewing Shed

On September 26, 2019September 26, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

This puzzle had my mom all over it, every piece and every section reminded me of her. It was a sweet, somewhat sad assembly, but in the end it makes me smile. It’s a beautiful image, a great quality puzzle, and brings up many lovely memories for me. 💗

Usually Ravensburger puzzles don’t have such prominent piece shapes in the finished image, but otherwise I can’t fault the quality. The pieces have that fantastic hand feel, and the fit was wonderful. As I’m going along with the assembly, and especially once I’m finished there is a lot of running my hands over the puzzle – no other puzzle feels like a Ravensburger! And for this one I found myself doing even more of that than usual. It feels so nice I can’t seem to stop myself.

One of the first things I noticed when sorting pieces was this little heart…

The Sewing Shed 2

I didn’t call her “mum”, but she certainly was my bestie! How sweet is that? I love it!

This assembly was so nice that I kept telling myself to slow down because I didn’t want it to be over too quickly. I couldn’t help it for the most part though, I have almost no self control. 😉

The Sewing Shed 1

This sewing box looks almost exactly like one my mom set up for me when she taught me cross-stitch. I loved cross-stitching, and carried my sewing box everywhere until the handle broke off! I’ve traded my needle and floss for jigsaw puzzles (they’re much easier on my poor aging eyes), but I have wonderful memories of crafting with mom.

Great puzzle, beautiful image, entertaining assembly, and mom – what a fantastic combination!

Starting a New Puzzle…

On September 25, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

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I’m starting a new puzzle today, a 550 piece collage called Massive Munchies. Sounds good, doesn’t it? For me these puzzles don’t usually make me hungry, so there isn’t much danger of me gaining weight from it – other than from spending too much time sitting at the puzzle table. 😉

What are you working on?

Sewing Collage

On September 24, 2019September 24, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles7 Comments

This puzzle was an interesting test for me, I assembled it much differently than I usually do. I found it enjoyable and pretty entertaining! It’s a very nice quality puzzle, and the repetition of the image made it a bit of a challenge. I had a very good time with this one. 🙂

With all the different elements repeated several times, I picked certain things (like pincushions, the red buttons, or the spools of thread) and assembled them all. Then I used the box image to see where each one fit into the frame.

Sewing Collage 1

I found that I really enjoyed assembling the puzzle this way. And once I got a few parts assembled and set in the frame, it was easier to see where things belonged and work off of them. It’s not always going to be applicable to every puzzle image, but it was a nice change for me.

Maybe we should all shake things up every now and again and try things a different way – we might find that we like it very much!

I’m enjoying these Big Ben puzzles, the quality is quite good and they have plenty of interesting and challenging images to choose from. They’re nice when I need a quick puzzle fix, and I like having them around. When I finish a larger puzzle and want something that will be entertaining and won’t take forever to complete I’ve got a Big Ben puzzle that’ll do the trick very nicely.

The Periodic Table of the Elements

On September 23, 2019September 23, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles5 Comments

I wish I had the right words to express how much I absolutely adored assembling this puzzle – it was so entertaining! It’s an older Eurographics puzzle, so it’s a random cut and it was absolutely the best puzzle I’ve assembled in a while!

Most of the newer Eurographics puzzles I’ve come across are not only grid cut, they only have the one piece shape. Ugh. Boring, boring, boring! This randomly cut puzzle was tricky in some places, but for the most part it was pretty easy – but not boring in the least. Can you tell I loved it?

I never took chemistry, so honestly this is the very first time I had a good look at the Periodic Table, and some of the element’s names were a surprise to me; Americum, Californium, Einsteinium, Europium, Neptunium…

Periodic Table 1

I was very interested in reading the names of all the elements, and it made me curious as to how or why things were named what they were. There was also a table at the bottom showing all the elements, the year they were discovered, and who discovered them. I found it so interesting!

Periodic Table 2

This puzzle was full of things I didn’t know. I’d never heard of Dimitri Mendeleev and had no idea he was the “inventor” of the periodic table. There’s an element named after him too – Mendelevium. I’m sure this isn’t new to many people, but it is to me; I found this entire puzzle not only entertaining, but fascinating as well.

This was one of the puzzles I found in the trunk of mom’s car, and it makes me think of her – she would have loved putting this one together. She knew the kind of puzzles I enjoy, and I’m certain she got this from the thrift store with me in mind. I wish she were here so that I could show her the finished image, tell her thank you, and tell her how much I miss puzzling with her. 💖

Almost There…

On September 22, 2019September 22, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

I’m down to two trays of pieces left on the 2000 piece puzzle, and I’m hoping to finish it today. Only a few hundred pieces to go. 🙂 It’s been so long since I’ve done such a large puzzle, I’m pretty proud of myself! Once it’s done I’d better get a move on and do some smaller puzzles to build my queue back up, I’ve only got four completed puzzles in there.

My youngest son came in the puzzle room yesterday and asked which puzzle I would do next after I finish the current one. He then proceeded to grab boxes one after the other and suggest that I do them next. “Nope”, “Not in the mood for that one”, “Too many pieces”, “I need a smaller one”, etc. He finally picked up one of my Wentworth micro puzzles and showed it to me, and I said “Good choice, I haven’t done that one yet.”

He almost never wants to help me with my puzzles, but it was sweet of him to try and help me pick out the next one. And it made him very happy when I decided to do one of the puzzles he’d suggested. Sometimes when I’m absorbed in a puzzle I don’t always take the time for simple things like letting him help me decide on the next puzzle to assemble; I’m trying to do better. 💝