Category: Jigsaw Puzzling

National Puzzle Day 2020

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

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It’s National Puzzle Day! Today is the day to celebrate all things puzzle – jigsaw puzzles, crosswords, logic puzzles, sudoku, word searches, etc. I enjoy puzzles of all kinds, but it won’t be a surprise for you to hear that jigsaw puzzles are my favorite. I learned my love of puzzles from my family, so today is a day for me to remember and appreciate my loved ones as well as enjoying some puzzles.

Every year I write a special post on this day, to remember the people who helped me love jigsaw puzzles as much as I do. This year, with my heart still broken from losing my mom, all I can think about is her and how much we enjoyed puzzling together. We’ll never sit together in front of a puzzle board again, and the loss still feels too heavy to bear.

I miss her on many levels, she was my mother after all. But in her later years we became the best of friends, and our shared love of all things jigsaw puzzle was one of the reasons why. We could talk about, look at, shop for, and work on puzzles for hours on end; no one else in our lives felt about puzzles the way we did, and we loved sharing them with each other. She was the first and most important member of my puzzle posse, and I miss her terribly.

My mother encouraged me to assemble the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle, and to start this blog; she was my first follower, my most faithful reader, and always cheered me on. My love of puzzles blossomed mostly because I was always able to share them with her, and they will always be a reminder of her too.

National Puzzle Day will forever be a day for me to remember my mother, and her mother – the two women in my life who taught me to love puzzles of all kinds. I got my start with jigsaw puzzles as a child at my grandmother’s side, and spent countless hours as an adult side by side with my mother assembling them. They were beautiful, kind, loving women, and for me this day is another reason to remember and honor them.

Happy National Puzzle Day my friends!

I miss you Gram, I miss you Mom. 💖

Knitters Stash In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments
Knitters IP
Knitters Stash – Springbok – 1000 pieces

It’s taking me a little bit to get my brain back into “random cut mode”, but I think it’s finally there. Thank goodness, because this puzzle has been more challenging than I bargained for already. I’ve been assembling grid cut puzzles almost exclusively this month, and I’ve had to wait for my brain to remember how to think around the random cut pieces and how they go together.

I’ve only gotten these two balls of yarn completed, but oh my has it  been challenging! It’s mostly been getting used to the random cut, but assembling skeins of yarn isn’t as easy as I’d hoped either. I’m sure I’ve put together yarn puzzles before, but I don’t remember any specifically; maybe the memory of them is why it’s taken me so long to finally start assembling this one. 😉

The image reminds me of mom, but not only because she got the puzzle at the thrift store for us, it’s the yarn. My mother did crafts all her adult life and there was always yarn, crochet thread, beads, knitting needles, etc. all over our house. Stored in closets, hung in garment bags, next to her chair, in the office – pretty much anywhere there was a flat surface or a place to stack things up you could be sure to find some craft supplies.

She always had to have some sort of project going (most of the time there were several projects in the works), and always took her knitting or crochet bag with her when she went anywhere. Waiting in the doctor’s office or sitting in the car waiting on one of her kids after band practice she’d be crocheting a coaster or knitting an afghan, or whatever beautiful project was being worked on at the moment. There was always a “go bag” of yarn or thread near her purse so that she’d be ready if she had to go anywhere.

Mom taught me to knit, crochet, embroidery, cross-stitch, and even a little sewing; I really only knit anymore, and it’s not very often. I’m set for life in the yarn department though, I’ve got quite a bit of it stashed away from mom’s house, and there are still so many more boxes to go through!

Farmers’ Market In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment
Farmers Mkt IP
Farmers’ Market – MasterPieces – 300 pieces

If I didn’t have a puzzle blog this puzzle wouldn’t even be on my board right now! But I do have this blog, and my aim is to post every day so I try to be sure to always have something to show. My pattern is to post completed puzzles for two days in a row and on the third day post whatever’s in progress and on my board. Today is in progress day, so I had to get my butt out of bed yesterday evening and get a puzzle going!

I’ve been feeling awful for the past two days and other than finishing the Aimee Stewart puzzle on my board (only had about 100 pieces left to fill in) I haven’t done a thing but lay around in bed trying to rest. Last night I realized that today was the day I post an in progress picture and I had nothing in the works; thankfully I was feeling a little better and wide awake, and was able to leave my snoring husband in bed to start work on my next project.

It was going to be a 500 piece Milton Bradley puzzle that I’d already picked out, but on seeing the pale and indistinct pieces I decided that image probably would be better suited to a day when I’m feeling 100% (or whatever percentage I’m normally working with 😉 ). Back in the box that one went, and I found this Farmers’ Market puzzle that I’d gotten at the thrift store last month. Three hundred pieces and an easy image was just what the doctor ordered for this partially healed blogger.

It didn’t take too long to get about half of the puzzle done, it was quick to sort and to assemble. I was doing well and could have spent more time at the table, but then I would have been too close to finishing. If I had gotten much more done I wouldn’t have been able to tear myself away until it was complete – and then there still wouldn’t have been a puzzle in progress to post about today!

Vintage Cake Shop In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments
Cake Shop IP
Vintage Cake Shop by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

I’ve been up since 1:30 this morning, it’s amazing how much puzzling you can get done in the wee hours when you can’t sleep. Hubby is sick, and goodness knows I love him, but men are such babies when they’re sick – at least mine is! The coughing has to be overly loud and drawn out and it ends with pathetic moaning – and it woke me up about 1:30 am. I tried to go back to sleep but the whiny man next to me in bed kept me awake.

If he refuses to go to the doctor I have little sympathy. My man in particular won’t even take over the counter medications unless I put them in his hand and make him take them. If you want to feel better, and you’re so sick that you can’t work or reach across your bedside table to get the tissue without assistance then you need to see a doctor! Sigh. Marriage. Sometimes he’s the sweetest man there is, and sometimes he’s so frustrating that I pass the time mentally spending the life insurance money. 💰🤔💰

Anyway, to the puzzle. I started sorting soon after I got out of bed, and this is the progress I’ve made so far. It’s going pretty well, though I must admit seeing all the very pale, pastel colors on the pieces made me hesitate when I opened the box. After I put a few pieces on the tray though I knew it would be alright; it’s an Aimee Stewart after all, and even though everything looks pale an indistinct right now it will all come together and make a beautiful picture in the end. It’s going to be a busy day, but hopefully I’ll be able to get a little sleep later on in the day, and get some more time at the puzzle table too. I’m enjoying this puzzle very much!

*My Buddy is having surgery this morning, so he’s off to the vet early and I’ll be picking him up this afternoon once he’s awake and the anesthesia has worn off. Think good thoughts for both Buddy and hubby, and if any of you have some extra patience anywhere, I could really use some – the men in my life are definitely wearing mine thin!

New Puzzle In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment
In Progress
My new puzzle!

My husband surprised me this past week and bought me a new wooden puzzle! Then he went one better and got one from a company I’ve never tried before, AND he picked out an image that I really like. He is the sweetest man, and after 31 years he still loves me and loves to surprise me. 💗

The image is The Prague Clock, or The Prague Astronomical Clock – which I must admit that I had never heard of before and knew nothing about. I’ve been reading about it since he presented me with the puzzle and am now completely fascinated by it. Did you know it’s the oldest working astronomical clock in the world? It was built in 1410 and is still working today; and it’s amazing the things this clock face can tell you.

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Astronomical clocks are designed to show you astronomical information (obviously), like the positions of the sun, moon, and certain constellations. The Prague clock, however, shows this information and much more. If you know how to read it you can tell the date, how long until sunrise or sunset, the location of the Sun on the ecliptic (which tells you the date in relation to the sign of the zodiac), what lunar phase the moon is currently in, and, oh yes, it tells time too (both current standard time and Ancient Bohemian Time). There may be more, I haven’t read through everything yet or committed all the information to memory.

I’m fascinated by the clock, and I’m excited to get started assembling the puzzle! I’ve looked through the pieces and picked out all the whimsies, and hopefully all the edge pieces too. The puzzle is on the small side, 19 x 14 inches, and only 500 pieces, so I’ve decided to just lay the pieces out on the board and work it that way with no trays to look through. I think it’s partly because of the discussion we’ve been having in the comments about the merits of sorting or not sorting; so I’ve decided to give not sorting another try. We’ll see how that goes. 😉