I finished my last puzzle on Tuesday morning and haven’t worked on a puzzle since. I came down with a virus or something and have just felt too awful to even work on a puzzle in bed. I’ve been missing it very much. 🙁
Usually I can work through whatever’s going on and at least put a few pieces into a puzzle every day. Even if it’s only a couple of pieces it makes me feel a little better. I can’t remember the last time I went this many days without puzzling at all.
There are MANY puzzles here that I am looking forward to assembling, so it’s definitely not a lack of puzzles to choose from. I’m hoping to at least start a new puzzle today. I found a couple of 100 piece puzzles at mom’s house that I hadn’t seen before and brought them home; I figure maybe such a small puzzle won’t be too overwhelming and might help get me back in the groove. Hopefully today’s the day – fingers crossed! 🤞
Doc’s Pond by Loren Blackburn – Sure-Lox – 300 pieces
This is another puzzle where the picture isn’t my usual, but as free is my favorite price it isn’t one that I would pass up. It was given to us by a friend of my mother’s who only does 300 piece puzzles. Usually they keep them for years and keep track on the box of each time it’s assembled. I don’t think they cared much for this one, it seems to have only been put together once and then given to us.
Most of the EZ grip 300 piece puzzles have very thick pieces, these did not. They were sturdy, but not overly thick. They’re actually the nicest Sure-Lox pieces I’ve worked with before. They fit together well and the image reproduction was good. There was only one piece shape, which I am not fond of – especially with an image like this one where there is so much greenery.
Sure-Lox puzzles are on my list of puzzles we don’t buy, not even from the thrift stores. All the pieces are what I call ballerinas, and when you add that to the thinness of the pieces and how easily they are bent – I just don’t find them worth my time. I assembled this one because I wanted to work with one of their large piece puzzles to see how they compared. The pieces were sturdier, which is a plus in my book. But still the thin pieces with just one piece shape – I wasn’t overly impressed.
It’s a pretty puzzle that fit together well, but that’s about all the praise I have for it. It was a quick assembly, and not too difficult. A fun afternoon of puzzling.
Pasture’s Edge (Moo) by Linda Elliott – Ceaco – 550 pieces
This image grabbed me right away when I saw it, and it makes me laugh to look at it. The beautiful flowers everywhere and the angry looking cows are quite opposite and I find it hilarious.
The quality was good with very nice image reproduction and a great fit. The pieces are on the thin side, but sturdy enough with a good variety of shapes. Ceaco isn’t a brand I normally buy new, but I really loved this image and couldn’t pass it up.
It was more difficult than I bargained for, but not too much so. I started with the black and white of the cows, and then assembled each of the different colors of flowers. Once all the flowers were complete all that was left was the grass, and it was relatively easy to fill in. The different textures of the grass in the foreground and background helped, as did the different piece shapes.
This was a fun puzzle, I love the image and it was challenging in a good way. If the image is something you like, I would definitely recommend it. It isn’t a premium quality puzzle, but I found it worth my time, and it still makes me smile to look at the picture. Moo! 🐮
London, The Thames… by Giovanni Canal – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 40 pieces
London, The Thames with View of the City and St. Paul’s Cathedral – a giant name for such a small puzzle! This is another in my collection of Wentworth micro puzzles, perfect for when I’m stuck in bed but still want to work on a puzzle.
This is absolutely NOT the type of image that I prefer to assemble, but when there are so few pieces I’ll take on just about any challenge. I appreciate the workmanship of these puzzles, and that they’re easy to take and assemble anywhere – especially when you don’t have much time or space.
I’m always amazed at how difficult a puzzle with so few pieces can be. You would think with only 30-40 pieces it would go together quickly, but they usually don’t. The cut is such that it takes a bit of brain power to complete, but I love that. They’re fun and challenging, the best qualities of a great puzzle!
This was a quick, fun puzzle that I put together one afternoon when I needed a puzzle fix in between larger piece count puzzles. It’s part of Ceaco’s Home Sweet Home series by artist Roger Nannini. I found I enjoyed the artwork very much!
Ceaco puzzles aren’t my favorite brand, but to be honest my opinion of them has gone up quite a bit after working with a brand that was much, much worse. Of the 25 puzzles I have assembled this month from 14 different brands, the Ceaco puzzles have been the best fitting of all of them. Shocked? Me too!
It’s interesting to me how a much lesser quality puzzle boosted my impression of Ceaco. Perhaps it just caused me to re-assess what I would and would not put up with in a puzzle. The fit is amazingly important to me – too loose is extremely annoying and frustrating. Too tight is the same way; if it takes upper body strength to smash the pieces together I always second guess if the pieces actually fit together (and it hurts my thumb!)
The pieces are on the thin side, with a good variety of piece shapes – made from multi-layered board that tends to split easily – but the fit is excellent. The image reproduction is good, with beautiful colors and crisp lines. This puzzle has been assembled many times, there is documentation on the side indicating each time it was put together. From what I’m reading it’s been put together at least 11 times before me. You can see in the picture above that many of the pieces were either split or bent and the finished puzzle didn’t lie flat. I don’t feel I can comment negatively on the quality of this specific puzzle if it’s been assembled so many times; I have no idea what it was like when it was new. That said, I actually think it’s held up well.
I enjoyed this puzzle very much, the artwork was interesting and made for a great afternoon of puzzling. I suppose I have more puzzles to choose from now that I’ve re-thought my stance on Ceaco. 😏
My Jigsaw Journal 