Category: Jigsaw Puzzling

Seattle In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous19 Comments

Seattle by Eric Dowdle – Dowdle Puzzles (Mini Wooden Puzzle) – 250 pieces

This gorgeous little beauty has been sitting partially assembled on my board for several days. I received a care package from The Puzzle Fairy (aka Penny) on Saturday, and immediately wanted to try out this mini wooden puzzle. The pieces are so small – about the size of a dime! I started it on a tray in the bedroom, but this little guy needed better lighting so I had to transfer it to the puzzle room. Sorry about the wonky picture, didn’t realize that I cut off one of the corners until just now and I’m too tired to retake it.

Unfortunately that evening around dinner time my dad called and asked me to take him to the hospital, and that’s basically where I’ve been every day since. He was admitted on Saturday night, and we’re still there. There hasn’t been much puzzling going on, but there has been plenty of sitting around on uncomfortable hospital seating. I’m hoping that today I can maybe do a MicroPuzzle or perhaps one of my Wentworth minis.

If I hadn’t started this puzzle before we got the call I might have taken it to the hospital the first morning he had his own room, but actually I’m glad I didn’t. The fit is so loose that it needs constant readjustment whenever anything gets moved. Honestly, it’s one of the loosest fitting wooden puzzles I’ve ever done, and without my fabric covered board to help keep the pieces from moving too much it would be a giant pain in the butt!

Even with the loose fit I’m still really enjoying this – even if I only find one or two pieces at a time. The artwork is beautiful, and though I find Eric Dowdle’s images challenging to puzzle it remains an entertaining little assembly. At first I thought I was going to use the little poster that comes with it, but I found that I’d rather take my time and enjoy finding each piece on my own rather than know exactly what I was looking for and where it went. Sometimes I use a poster, but lately I’m just enjoying the puzzles however it makes sense for me on that particular day. It’s been fun!

It struck me as odd after typing up the previous paragraph that my last White Mountain puzzle had me complaining about the loose fit, and here I am saying that although this puzzle has an extremely loose fit that I’m enjoying the assembly. I have no excuses or explanations – all I can tell you is that it’s the truth.

It’s been nice to have this puzzle sitting on my board so that when I come home after spending all day at the hospital I can sit down, even if it’s only for a few moments and find a piece or two to add. Last night, I sat down, found one piece, and that was it. At least I can say I did a teeny tiny bit of puzzling yesterday; even just finding that one piece made me happy, and isn’t that what it’s all about?

*If you have a spare few moments today, send a good thought for my dad that he continues to improve and that we’ll be able to get him home from the hospital without needing any surgery. Thank you my friends. 💕

Living In Bird World In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous7 Comments

Living In Bird World by Lisa Houck – Liberty Puzzles – 498 pieces

I’m having a bad day today, and this beautiful Liberty Puzzle has been helping me keep my mind off of things. That’s number 138 on the list of reasons why puzzling is good for your mental health. When you work on a puzzle it isn’t possible to multi-task, every part of your brain must be engaged with finding out what shape, cut, and color you’re looking for. The best puzzles can do that with ease, they keep you engrossed in what you’re doing, there’s no time to dwell on problems you may have or situations you can’t change, etc. It’s a mindful, peaceful meditation, and that’s just what I needed today.

I love to puzzle and being a dissectologist has been such a blessing in my life.🧩❤

The symmetrical section with many repeating pieces is where I started, that’s the top section shown; when that began to become more difficult and I needed something a bit easier I went with the darker section of dots in the bottom corner. It took a bit to reorient my brain to how all these pieces worked together, but from then on it’s been pretty smooth sailing. When that was finished I started on the smaller dots in the section above it and that’s where I am now. I’ve pulled out all the pieces (I hope) with the dots on the light background and am attempting to put everything into it’s place and hopefully connect these two sections together.

When I work a premium wooden puzzle like this one I normally put the box away where I cannot easily catch a glimpse of the image on the box. It makes the assembly last a little longer for me and I enjoy figuring out where each piece and whimsy fits into the overall picture. And when I’m finished it gives me a greater sense of accomplishment.

God Bless this puzzle for being here for me today, to keep my mind otherwise occupied when things that I can’t do anything about are happening and I don’t want to wallow (which I would definitely be doing right now). Puzzles have always been a cozy, warm hug for me when I’ve needed it, and I need many hugs today. 🤗🤗

Hummingbird’s Treasure In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

Hummingbird’s Treasure – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

I haven’t gotten as far I would have liked on this one yet, usually these puzzles are finished in one sitting. They’re what I call “one coffee puzzles” – they can usually be completed in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. Having a bad time lately with being able to sit in a chair for any length of time though, so this one will hopefully be completed later on today.

There’s something about working on these little puzzles with little pieces; I can’t really explain why they make me so happy, but then again I don’t really need to understand it. I can just enjoy them, right? Of course right!

This image is beautiful, and obviously I love that the hummingbird’s treasure is a puzzle piece. This isn’t an easy one, and working with the somewhat shiny pieces under artificial lighting is proving difficult at times. I had to turn off the light over the puzzle board and just work with the room lighting. The blue color around the border is a bit darker than the image shows, but it’s gonna be stunning when it’s done and difficult or not I’m still enjoying it. 😊

Rebels In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Rebels – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

I’m sure it won’t be a surprise for you to hear that this puzzle is making for a completely entertaining assembly. If you ask me it needs to be a 2000 piece puzzle because it seems to be going together much too quickly and the fun is going to be over way too soon. 😥

There are most likely many things to tell you about the assembly so far, but I need to get back to my puzzle; it’s calling to me…

It also occurs to me that there aren’t nearly enough collage puzzles here, perhaps I need to do some shopping!

Get Your Stitch Together In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Get Your Stitch Together – What The Puzzles – 1000 pieces

This puzzle has only just gotten started, but I’m already having the loveliest time with it! First of all, my darling daughter came over to spend time with me yesterday on Mother’s Day, and she helped me put the edges together. We haven’t worked on a puzzle together in what seems like forever and it made my heart happy. Secondly, my sweet puzzle pal Penny sent me this puzzle (and one other) just because she’s an awesome friend. And last but not least, this is a new-to-me brand, and it seems to be quite good quality – which is always a great thing to discover!

I’ll have to be careful when I write up the post for the completed puzzle though, it is full of cuss words, rude language, and in general is extremely R-rated. As the wife of a retired Marine there isn’t a swear word I haven’t heard or seen before, and not much can shock me. To have such bad language and sometimes awful things cross-stitched into little samplers, however, I found absolutely hilarious. I laughed so hard when I saw the package, you have no idea! 🤣 (Of course that’s the reason for the big question mark in the “what’s on my board” section of the homepage too – I don’t wanna put a picture of the puzzle where I can’t give fair warning first to allow anyone to opt out of it if they’d prefer.)

The pieces are on the thinner side, but are extremely sturdy – and the fit is exceptional. I’m very much looking forward to working on this puzzle some more!