Tuesday 11-08-16

On November 8, 2016May 24, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn World's Largest Puzzle ProgressLeave a comment

Finally was able to finish sorting and start the actual assembly of the 3rd section, Dumbo. While sorting, it was clear that this puzzle isn’t going to be a cakewalk, although I’m hoping it won’t be as challenging as Cinderella was. The number of grey and pink pieces for Dumbo himself is a bit overwhelming, not to mention the various shades of brown, blue and white. But I’ll get through it like always, and will be extremely proud when it’s finished 🙂

Timothy Q. Mouse is completed already, as his pieces were the easiest to pull out – he’s basically the smallest thing in the puzzle. He is about the size of my hand, so not tiny, but you can see in the picture he is a very small part of the whole image.

I started with the burgundy color in the background behind Dumbo, and as the filmstrip is connected to that I decided to go ahead and do that early in this puzzle. It’s not a corner section so there is only one side that has filmstrip instead of two. Not difficult to work, and actually boosted my piece count for the day so I’m already about 1/8 done! I also put together Dumbo’s eyes and mouth, and the little 4 piece Disney logo. That was where I called it quits for the day.

It doesn’t look overly impressive, but I’m happy with the amount I got done today, especially having had to go out and run errands twice! Hopefully tomorrow will be less hectic and there will be more time to work on the puzzle. Now that I’ve started I’m anxious to make lots of progress!

Hardest Puzzle I’ve Ever Done

On November 7, 2016May 24, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Unknown title, artist and manufacturer – 500 pieces

This was the most difficult puzzle I have ever done! I was unbelievably proud when I finished it, and am trying to find the right frame to display it in. While cleaning the office in my parent’s house, we came across a couple of puzzles in ziploc bags. This puzzle had a very small picture cut from the box for “reference” – it was about 1 1/2 or 2 inches square. Not big enough to help at all, but just to show what the puzzle looks like completed.

It’s hard to tell in this picture, but each of the squares is actually four squares of different fabric/designs. With no picture for reference, this 500 piece puzzle took me 5 days to complete (for comparison a 1000 piece puzzle I can usually finish in 2-3 days)! I don’t know why this didn’t frustrate me, but I was content to work on this puzzle and spend more time looking for pieces than actually assembling. It may have been that I knew it was going to be an awesome looking finished image, or that I loved the challenge of having no picture to work from.

Most of the time when I finish a puzzle, I take it apart and take it to moms house so she can do it if she wants to. She said something to me about trying it herself and I had to tell her that I couldn’t bear to take this apart! Sorry, but I will be gluing and framing it because I’ve never been more proud of a finished puzzle. The most difficult jigsaw puzzle I’ve ever done, and I don’t even know where it came from!

Civil War Generals

On November 6, 2016May 24, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

What a fun puzzle! It was refreshing after working the large Cinderella section to have a puzzle where I barely had to look at the box and could put together large sections of it. I’m not sure I would call it a collage, but it felt that way to me. Really relaxing and entertaining, along with educational.

The Eurographics brand is quite good – random cut, good thickness, and the image was crisp. Really fun to assemble; it was easy to pull out all the words and put those together, then the flags, etc. The frames for the Union and Confederate generals were different as well, so that made the portraits easy to pull out and assemble too.

Under each general’s name was a short bio including dates of birth and death, major battles and campaigns participated in, and place of burial. I had never heard of many of these men and I learned a lot.

And oh my the facial hair – mutton chops for days, impressive beards and fantabulous mustaches!

Rondo

On November 5, 2016May 24, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

This is an amazing company from Germany that I’d never heard of before. They don’t carry very many puzzles (there were only 9 to choose from last time I checked), but they are of amazing quality. The puzzle came in a large round tube, there was a poster inside, and the pieces were unbelievably thick! They were cardboard, but so thick and dense it almost felt like wood.

I believe this was purchased at Barnes and Noble in the clearance section, and how I wish there had been more of this brand! The image is interesting and the colors were bright and fun. It wasn’t overly difficult to assemble, grid cut, and the feel of the pieces made for a wonderfully fun tactile experience. I would love to find more of this brand here in the states, there are 3 or 4 of their other puzzles I would enjoy doing very much.

Saturday 11-05-16 20% Done!

On November 5, 2016May 24, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, World's Largest Puzzle Progress1 Comment

8064 pieces assembled- 32,256 pieces to go!

Cinderella is finished! I’m super proud of myself, and very thankful to my mom and husband for helping put the last pieces in today. Thanks guys! Actually, thanks mom. Hubby never reads this blog. He gets to hear about the puzzle and sees it every day. 🙂

I sure was right when I said that this would be one of the difficult ones. But it took me only 16 days to complete this section compared to 20 days for Snow White. I think I learned a few things working the first section that sped things up a bit, and I also think I worked harder on it because I wanted to get it over with. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, because I did; but at times it seemed as if I was making no progress at all. And again, there were raging hormone days which made slight frustrations seem way worse than they actually were.

She is beautiful and I’m glad she’s finished. The twinklies were the last pieces to be assembled and it seemed more difficult on this section than it did on Snow White. Perhaps that’s just my perception, but it sure did feel as if I spent WAY more time looking for pieces. It is helpful though that there is a pattern to the pieces along the connecting edges. You can see in the picture above that it alternates, this is helpful in determining what shape pieces you’re looking for next.

Tomorrow she’s coming off the board to be put on cardboard to rest under my bed until assembling day. I really should figure out what I’m going to do with the puzzle once it is complete! Buy a bigger house with a wall large enough to display it? Or with enough floor space to put it on the floor and cover it with a clear sealer? If I do that though, I can never ever move! Also, do I really want people walking all over it? I think not!

Dumbo is next, but I’m not sure if I’ll start sorting tomorrow or not. I have pulled the bag of pieces but that’s as far as I got. I am still working on the Civil War Generals puzzle, but I may get antsy to get started on the next section. I do want to finish the Civil War puzzle, because it’s quite fun – interesting and informative. Lots of words too, which I LOVE to put together. Although you may be seeing Dumbo progress start very soon!