Fallingwater

On February 11, 2018February 11, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

This isn’t my typical choice for a puzzle image, but the fact that this is a double sided puzzle and that the blueprints for this building is the image on the back piqued my interest and I couldn’t walk away from it. What an excellent idea!

I had a couple of issues with the quality of this puzzle, the first being the very shiny finish on the picture of the house; there was way too much shine, making it very difficult to work on under artificial lights. In fact the shininess of the pieces was part of the reason that I did the majority of the assembly with the blueprint side facing up. Secondly, the fit at times seemed a little mushy; when you tried to fit the pieces together you couldn’t always tell if the fit was correct.

I looked at other Galison puzzles at the store, luckily I was able to take the lid off and look at the pieces in the bag. There was another image that I liked very much, but the pieces were all ballerinas (2 prong, 2 hole) Blech! I prefer pieces to have more than one shape. On the plus side this puzzle had a good variety of piece shapes and once it was assembled correctly the fit was good enough to lift the entire puzzle. Here’s the image on the back…..

I was all over the place when I assembled this, the edge was put together picture side up then I flipped it over to assemble the blueprint in the center. I thought assembling the blueprint would be interesting, and it was! Once the majority of the blueprint was assembled and the only pieces left were all blue I flipped it over again and let the image assist in completing the remainder of the puzzle. I make no apologies – it was fun!

Dinosaur

On February 10, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles5 Comments

Here’s another small children’s puzzle that mom and I assembled on our visit/puzzle day. Melissa & Doug make excellent puzzles for children and they have some really interesting educational and fun images.

The colors seem a bit muted here, but it was still a pretty puzzle and an entertaining assembly. The fit is almost seamless and the pieces were wonderfully thick. Melissa & Doug are primarily focused on children’s games and toys and they have a very nice selection for children of all ages.

They also carry a small line of adult puzzles, but I don’t believe I’ve assembled any of them yet. We’ve not found any of their larger piece count puzzles at the local thrift stores, but I’m hoping for the chance to try one someday.

Melissa & Doug, I wouldn’t say no to one of your adult puzzles to review; I love trying out new companies! 😉

Review: Vintage Signs

On February 9, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

My first new puzzle purchase of 2018, and it was absolutely as much fun as I’d hoped. Collages are my favorite kind of puzzle, I love being able to assemble one small section at a time, and it’s satisfying to connect the sections together.

This Re-marks puzzle was very good quality; although they are shiny the pieces are thick and they connect together very well. The piece shape is quite obvious in the finished image, but for me that doesn’t really detract from the enjoyment of the assembly. The shine was a little annoying under the lights – even though the image isn’t dark it was still difficult at times to see the pieces properly.

I feel a little bit better now that I’ve successfully completed a 500 piece puzzle, and after a couple more I hope to get back to doing 1000 piece puzzles and maybe even higher piece counts.

Details:

Title: Vintage Signs
Artist: Re-marks
Brand: Re-marks
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 16 x 20 in. (40 x 50 cm)
Purchased: New

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: All 2 prong 2 hole pieces, but good variety within that shape
Finish: Shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

The Ballet Class

On February 8, 2018February 8, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Very cute Ravensburger that we were hoping was complete, unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. Still Mom and I enjoyed ourselves assembling it, and isn’t that what counts the most?

I love working Ravensburger puzzles, they’re my favorite manufacturer. Their puzzles are excellent quality all around and are the best to work with in my opinion. And if I ever have a problem with one of their puzzles they have always made it right immediately with excellent customer service. The pieces are thick and feel good in your hand, there are always a nice variety of shapes to work with, the image reproduction is excellent, and they fit together very well. They’re the best in the biz!

Even with this puzzle being over 34 years old, it is still in excellent shape. I could tell by the condition of the box that it was a well loved puzzle, but I was pleased that the pieces themselves were still holding up wonderfully. If only all the pieces were there – bummer.

Still, it won’t deter us from continuing to shop at the thrift stores, there are too many fabulous puzzles there at such good prices. If you want to stop my mom from shopping the thrift stores you’re going to have to wrestle her car keys from her – good luck with that! 🙂

The Story of Heidi in the Alps

On February 7, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I got a bee in my bonnet about getting all the children’s puzzles in my house assembled so I could donate them and get them out of here; so I spent some time in front of the tv catching up on my shows while assembling 9 puzzles one after another. It also helped me build my stockpile of posts back up, so I have a little cushion now in case I need it again. 😁

These two puzzles were only 12 pieces each and went together extremely quickly, but they’re beautifully made puzzles of excellent quality. Almost every puzzle I assembled this day (7 out of 9) were Ravensburger puzzles and every one of them was wonderful quality. I appreciate companies that put effort into their puzzles for kids, and the best that I’ve found are Ravensburger, Cobble Hill, and Eurographics.

When I assembled the second puzzle in the box I struggled to remember the name of the boy in the story. I know I read it as a child, and I remember the movie Heidi with Shirley Temple, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember the boy’s name. (I’m sure I just dated myself with the Shirley Temple reference, but that’s mostly how I remember the story of Heidi) I had to give up on my memory and look it up online, his name is Peter.

Jigsaw puzzles are great for helping children develop problem solving skills, fine motor coordination, spatial awareness, pattern recognition and many other essential skills. I highly recommend puzzles as gifts for children, they’re fun and educational and might even start someone off on the road to enjoying jigsaw puzzles for the rest of their life!