Crossword Jigsaw

On January 7, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This is another Christmas present from one of my kids – they know me so well! Not only did my Grama teach me to assemble jigsaws, she taught me crosswords too; and I enjoy them both very much. This puzzle is the best of both worlds!

It’s from another new company that I’d never heard of, my research tells me that they only make these crossword jigsaw puzzles, one edition per year from the looks of it. It’s pretty darn good quality from a company whose primary focus isn’t jigsaws.

If you’re a regular reader you know how much I enjoy having text to assemble, this puzzle had me in heaven – words, words everywhere! According to the box you should begin by solving the crossword…

Crossword Jigsaw 1

It’s easier then to solve the jigsaw if you solve the crossword first, but you don’t have to be good at them, or even try if you don’t want to. You could just work the jigsaw and fill in the blanks once you’re finished. Or you could do your best on the crossword and use the jigsaw to help. I’ll admit to not getting the whole crossword done first, I needed help with a few of the answers.

The crossword puzzle is about medium difficulty, although it really all depends on your ability and familiarity with crossword puzzles. My Grama would have found this extremely easy to solve, she was a crossword expert. If you’re new to them or not very proficient, be careful! There are a few clues meant to trip you up, you think the answer is obvious, but it isn’t at all. I love the ones that keep you on your toes. 😏

My only problem is that the puzzle you solve on paper doesn’t match the jigsaw. The clues and answers are the same, but the proportions don’t match.

In the actual jigsaw directly beneath the grid is the clue for 70-down. On the paper that you use to solve the crossword the clue is 55-down. Apparently you’re only supposed to use the paper to fill in the crossword puzzle and not as a reference for anything other than the grid itself. A teeny bit annoying.

Overall though, I had great fun with this one. I was going to save it to post on National Puzzle Day later this month, but things being what they are I needed it today – besides, every day is puzzle day around here. 😎

Fun So Far…

On January 6, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

green shirt

Up at 3 am this morning, couldn’t sleep, feeling awful – then I decided to sit in front of my puzzle for a bit. As always, it helps. This is part of the reason I love puzzles❣

With no explanation other than “that’s the way it was”, I had a great time working on the green shirt this morning. There are days when large areas of one color are so satisfying to assemble, and this was one of them. The random cut helps a bit, and the pieces seemed to fly into place – so much fun!

Now it’s almost 10 am, and I’m ready for a nap. 😴

Harry Potter Book 1

On January 5, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

If you didn’t already figure me for a puzzle nerd, guess what? I’m a book nerd too! I love reading ❤ Some of my favorites are great book series – all the Little House books, the Clan of the Cave Bear series, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, and definitely Harry Potter!

In fact, I’ve read all the books in all of those series several times – but there’s something magical about the Harry Potter books (no pun intended) – they’re comforting, exciting, funny, sad, sweet, scary, and just about everything you need for a great read. And with this FABULOUS gift my daughter gave me for Christmas I’ve got both of my nerdy passions together!

Harry Potter set

I’ve only put together two of these so far, but the quality is even better than the last NYPC puzzle I assembled; thick pieces with a nice fit, and first rate image reproduction. They’re all 100 pieces and they’re all going to be great fun!

Now I’m wondering what other book covers would be great puzzle art, hmmmm. All the Little House covers would be so entertaining for me – I adore every one of those books. Any other ideas?

100 Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix

On January 4, 2019January 4, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

100 Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix – Hartmaze – 253 pieces

My son gave this puzzle to my mom as a Christmas present, and the three of us assembled it on Christmas Day. We found out that it is so much more difficult assembling an intricately cut puzzle with no whimsy pieces, but we had a great time working together to assemble it anyway. It is really lovely quality for only a $25 wooden puzzle, and I was thoroughly impressed!

100 Birds back

I’ve only ever found Hartmaze puzzles on Amazon, and they only seem to carry a few different images to choose from. But I found the quality to be excellent, and I would definitely love to assemble more.

There’s a self-imposed puzzle buying ban at My Jigsaw Journal for the moment, but eventually I’m sure I’ll be buying one of my own. 🙂

2018 Puzzle Recap

On January 3, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

2018 was a quite a year for me and my puzzles; I slowed down quite a bit due to physical problems, but still somehow managed to assemble 279 puzzles totaling 105,093 pieces! Wow! Don’t be too impressed by the number of puzzles though, there were a LOT of micro puzzles this year at 40 pieces or less. They’re so much fun that if I were in the right mood I could put together a dozen or more of them in a day. 🙂

The piece counts breakdown was interesting for me to compile – I was shocked at how it all turned out. It was an eye-opening exercise for me, and has me wanting to keep track this year as I go along. With kids puzzles, micros, and wooden puzzles with odd counts there were a lot of them to keep track of, but I ended up only counting the “regular” ones. Here’s how it all worked out…

100 pieces – 16
300 pieces – 61
500 pieces – 80
750 pieces – 2
1000 pieces – 28
1500 pieces – 1
Other – 91

Sugar Magnolia by Phil Lewis – Liberty Puzzles – 881 pieces

Shoes – Lafayette Puzzle Factory – 500 pieces

Birds by Jane Tattersfield – Liberty Puzzles – 509 pieces

Birds (Alternate Solution) by Jane Tattersfield – Liberty Puzzles – 509 pieces

Pattern 4 by Patchwork – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces

These were some of my favorite puzzles of 2018. Sugar Magnolia (given to me by my husband for my 50th birthday) was my hands-down absolute favorite puzzle I’ve ever assembled! Shoes, and really all the mini shaped puzzles from Lafayette Puzzle Factory gave me such great joy; and my son loved them so much he was always up to come hang out with me and help assemble them. ❤ Birds and it’s alternate solution made me pretty damned happy too! I bought that one for myself for our 30th anniversary and Mother’s Day which were only one day apart last year. It was challenging and beautiful and altogether wonderful. And lastly the Patterns puzzles were perfect images for my kind of puzzling and I had a great time with all 3 of them.

There were 67 different brands that I assembled this year. Ravensburger was the cardboard puzzle brand that showed up most often, and Wentworth was the wooden brand that saw the most time on my boards. From Andrews & Blaine all the way to Zen – there were a lot of friends both new and old. How many brands did you work last year? I’m looking forward to finding more fun puzzles and new brands to try in 2019. 😎

As for 2019, I fretted a bit about setting goals and then I remembered that there won’t be a penalty if they aren’t reached. Duh. 300 puzzles seems like a giant goal to accomplish – that’s 25 puzzles a month! But oh well, if I get there I’ll be super proud, right? As for piece count I’ve settled on 110,000. Piece count goal scares me more than the puzzle count for some reason.

So did you set a puzzle goal for this year? I’d love to hear what they are! Planning to just find more time for yourself to puzzle? Finishing a large piece count jigsaw? Buy yourself a wooden one? Start a puzzle blog? Try new brands? Perhaps your goal will inspire me and other puzzlers too!

Happy puzzling in 2019 my friends! ☺