Sewing Notions by Shelley Davies – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces
This is such a fantastic picture that you can see my tv remote and the partial legs of my hubby. Sorry. It was a lot of fun though, even though it was more difficult than I thought it would be. Here’s what the image actually looks like…
It was great quality – Cobble Hill puzzles usually are, and the fit was excellent. I find that most of their puzzles have an obvious piece shape in the finished image. You can’t really tell it from the angle of my picture, but the piece shapes are quite obvious in this puzzle. For me, it doesn’t detract from the assembly, it’s no less enjoyable; but if you want to frame and hang a puzzle it does take away from the look of the completed image.
Hubby and I enjoyed this puzzle much more than we thought we would, I think he likes coming to my rescue with a difficult puzzle – especially near the end. That’s his M.O., he loves to be my hero and help solve problems and make life easier for me. I love him dearly for it 💖; he’s a sweetheart, even though he would DEFINITELY not describe himself that way.
Do you ever work on puzzles with your sweetheart or a friend? Or do you prefer to be by yourself and put in every single piece?
Unseen by Edmundo Sanchez – Artifact Puzzles – 252 pieces
In honor of the official first day of fall, today’s puzzle is a spooky one I’ve been waiting to post since I finished it at the beginning of August. It’s “Halloweeny” and I’ve been keeping it till it was the right time. Fall brings Halloween (my favorite holiday), and therefore today is the perfect day for this puzzle!
This is the most difficult, challenging, and wonderfully frustrating wooden puzzle I’ve ever assembled. I bought it during the clearance sale at Artifact Puzzles; I’d been looking at it for a while, but the sale gave me the extra push to go ahead and get it. I loved the look of it, and was excited to be able to purchase it at half price. 🙂
There weren’t many whimsy pieces, but most of the pieces had connectors shaped like bones, so most of them were “whimsy-like”. I started with the skull, obviously, and it wasn’t too difficult. The rest of the puzzle was another story, and it sat on my puzzle board for several weeks before my son and I finally finished it.
I love the faces inside the eye sockets, they’re creepy and cute at the same time and in my opinion they make the whole image as wonderful as it is. The pictures on the website make it seem less difficult than it was, it showed a much lighter background that didn’t look as hard as it actually was. There’s a border of smoky filigree that you can’t really see on the puzzle because the chocolate background is so dark.
Once the skull was complete I was absolutely intimidated by the remainder of the pieces. They were all so dark and the connectors all looked so similar. It was a bit overwhelming for me, so I needed to give myself some time and distance. I put the board in my puzzle room; some days I would walk by and stop to put in a piece or two, sometimes a few weeks would go by before I even tried to put in any pieces.
When my son and I spent a few days together working on puzzles, he wanted to get this one finished. So we finished it together one day while watching M*A*S*H. It was so nice to spend time with him assembling it, and with someone else to help out and talk to it made it less overwhelming. We were both so proud when we finished!
We flipped it over once the pictures were taken, and my favorite part was this skull and crossbones with a top hat – so cute!
This puzzle was wonderful, scary, difficult, and ultimately a lot of fun. I’m so glad I finally purchased it, but I don’t think I’ll be assembling it again. It was such a challenge that I haven’t disassembled it yet, and am having my husband make me a special frame with plexiglass on both sides so that you can see the front and the back. I would never glue a wooden jigsaw puzzle, but hubby will make me a fantastic frame that will make it so it doesn’t need gluing.
The Talking Jigsaw Puzzle – The Fitness Center – Buffalo Games – 560 pieces
This picture is purposely not the greatest – I never want to give away the answer to puzzles that include a solution not shown on the box; Wasgij puzzles, What If puzzles, and any others that you have to figure out by yourself. These Talking Jigsaw puzzles are both a jigsaw and a logic puzzle in one and the correct completed image isn’t shown on the box.
Each small section is four pieces, and the characters are “talking” to each other. After the edge, you start by putting together all of the small sections; once you’ve assembled each one you have to use logic to determine where they fit into the puzzle by what they’re saying to each other or other clues. Sometimes they say where they are, what is next to them, or where another section belongs. It’s not really easy to describe, you have to work it yourself to see how everything goes together.
On the back of the puzzle the word “congratulations” is written over and over in several different fonts. If you’re ever unsure about whether you’ve placed a section correctly you can check the back to see if the words line up. This would be a perfect puzzle to assemble on a glass top table, you could check the back without having to keep flipping pieces over. (Although I don’t know how easy it would be to keep checking underneath the table, especially if you’re older like me and have any physical limitations.)
I’ve done three of these Talking Jigsaw puzzles, and they are so absorbing and entertaining – I adore them! We haven’t found them all, but we’ve been lucky to come across them here and there at different thrift stores. There are still The High School, The Beach, Heartbreak Hotel, and possibly more; here’s to hopefully finding and assembling them all. 🙂
Have you ever worked a Talking Jigsaw? What did you think?
World War I Posters by Mark Karvon – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
World War I Posters was great fun; I love a good collage, and this is definitely a good one! There’s something about the look of these vintage posters, it was as much fun as I’d hoped, and it’s one I highly recommend.
White Mountain puzzles have, in my opinion, the best catalog of collages around. From candy and toys to books and games, beer and wine, and much, much more they have a collage for just about any taste. Their puzzles are grid cut, with thick pieces that have a good variety of shapes. A finished 1000 piece White Mountain puzzle is larger than average so make sure you have enough work space before you begin. I enjoy the bigger puzzles, it seems almost like a more impressive accomplishment when you’re done. Click the link above to see all their puzzles currently in stock at Puzzle Warehouse. (I like to check out the out of stock puzzles as well, if they’ve got an awesome collage or two that I like I can enter my email and be notified when they’re back in stock.)
This puzzle in particular was a lot of fun to assemble, I think partly because many of the posters are less well known. A couple of my favorites are shown below…
The daylight savings poster had me doing research – I had no idea the bill was passed to save on fuel during the war! The liberty poster is just beautiful, there’s something about her face that’s captivating. I wanted to assemble her first, and found my eye always returning to look at her as I was completing other sections of the puzzle, she always had my attention for some reason.
I very much enjoyed assembling and reading each of the posters in this collage; having so many small sections to assemble made the 1000 pieces seem less intimidating to me. And if you only have 10 or 15 minutes to sit and puzzle you can find and complete an entire poster or two and feel like you’ve made progress, I love that about collages!
From the first 2 edge pieces I clicked together, to pressing down on the final piece, I had more fun with this puzzle that I’ve had in a long time. The quality was very good, the image is perfect for puzzling, and it’s one I definitely recommend. Two lady liberties way up!🗽🗽
Details:
Title: World War I Posters
Artist: Mark Karvon
Brand: White Mountain
Piece count: 1000 pieces
Size: Approx. 24 x 30 in. (61 x 76 cm)
Purchased: N/A, sent for review
Quality:
Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Very good
Box: Average
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat
Overall Rating: Very good, recommended
I received this product at no cost in order to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.
Even though this puzzle had 2 missing pieces it was still fun to assemble – I had a great time with it actually. 👍
Mom has quite the knack for finding awesome puzzles like this one at the thrift stores. I’m kinda missing all those awesome finds these days, she’s in the process of moving and doesn’t have time to go thrift shopping. (Besides, if she came home with more puzzles I think my dad’s head might explode – they still haven’t finished packing all the ones we already own!)
I enjoy kids puzzles very much, I’m a “grownup” but putting together a kids puzzle makes me just as happy as any adult puzzle ever could. Sometimes it’s not the puzzle, it’s the puzzling. ☺
