Pig House

On April 29, 2020April 29, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles14 Comments

I hemmed and hawed about assembling this puzzle, it’s probably been at my house for two years, perhaps even longer. It’s a thrift store find of mom’s that looks like a fun image, but with it’s muted colors I knew that it would be difficult. Of course you never know until you get to assembling, but it turns out I was right; the truly random cut and muted colors made it quite a challenge.

The Great American Puzzle Factory is no longer in business, but I don’t think it could have been because of their quality. I’ve done several of their puzzles, and they’ve all been very good. The pieces were very thick, with an excellent variety of shapes and an excellent fit. The image reproduction is very good as well, the muted colors seem to be true to the original artwork.

Pig House 1

La Pension Porcinee – the pig boarding house. I love the whimsy of the artwork and the simple and silly things all the pigs are doing. One is out walking the poodle, and there is a piglet blowing bubbles on the front steps while two old timers are in rocking chairs on the porch.

Pig House 2

Bath time – cleaning up with a big bottle of Hogwash – love it!

Pig House 3

Two honeymooners, expressing their love for one another while a cat hides under the bed. It’s not something you think pigs would be doing – traveling from Cincinnati! 😉

Pig House 4

Here we see the deliveryman bringing “food” into the kitchen. I’m certainly glad I don’t live close to this boarding house!

This puzzle is 34 years old – from 1986. It seems odd to me that the year I graduated from high school is that many years ago. That can’t possibly be. My math must be wrong. Right?

What’s the Temperature?

On April 25, 2020April 25, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

It will be no surprise to anyone that I had a fantastic time with this puzzle. I love collages, but the downside of them is that they are over too quickly because I can’t seem to walk away. Even if I sit in the chair at my puzzle table until the pain makes me stop, I end up resting for only a little while because I just have to get back to it!

This thrift store puzzle was complete, which isn’t something I can say about every puzzle bought second-hand. It was well loved, and it looks as though it’s been assembled several times; many of the tabs had the image lifting off from repeated assembly and disassembly. Otherwise, it was still in relatively good condition.

What's the Temperature 1

This made me smile, you almost need a magnifying glass to read it, but between the degrees of temperature it tells you why you should go fishing. At the colder end it says “Oh yay! Pre-frozen fish”, “Frozen worms aren’t slimy”, and “Wouldn’t sweat if we fished today”. At the warmer end it says “We fish, we get a tan, what d’ya say?”, “Too hot for anything but fishing”, and something like “Get the fish pre-baked today”. I’m not one for fishing, but I think this may be the cutest thermometer I’ve ever seen.

What's the Temperature 2

Looks to me like this is some sort of “snake oil” medication, but it makes for a cool looking thermometer. My son says “Dr.” Ramon looks like the Monopoly Man. 😄

What's the Temperature 3

You can see above many of the tabs with the image sticking up. It’s a thrift store puzzle that has been assembled before – you can’t say how many times – and there’s quite a bit of image lift on this puzzle. It makes the end of puzzle “massage” a little less satisfying; you can feel them sticking up and you have to try not to rip any of the image off while it’s getting it’s rubdown.

And when’s the last time anyone heard of Ken-L Ration dog food? Looooong time!

I started this one in the morning and finished before bedtime. Perhaps I need to see if I can find some 2000 piece collages – are there any of those out there? I’m sure there aren’t right now, but once we’re able to find puzzles again I’d love to get my hands on two or three — or twenty-seven of them. 😇

Crystal Cove II

On April 23, 2020April 23, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

This is not an image I would normally go for, but after assembling the Stained Glass Songbirds I wanted to see if this image – also from the Amazing Nature Series – would be as striking. It’s very pretty, but as it wasn’t the same artist it didn’t have the same stunning color usage, and this had such a large amount of blue that it seemed to overpower all other colors.

I think I was spoiled by Stained Glass Songbirds. The artwork of Ciro Marchetti and his color usage was so unbelievably beautiful that all others pale in comparison. It was my hope that being in the same series the artwork would be comparable. It isn’t. But it isn’t fair to the artist of this image, Christian Riese Lassen, to compare his work; it’s comparing apples to oranges. This image is beautiful on it’s own.

Crystal Cove 2

The top of the water wasn’t easy, but was much easier to assemble than below the water.

Crystal Cove 1

The fish weren’t too difficult, but the water and the dolphins took much more time and brain cell usage than the top half of the image.

It makes me happy to have found such good quality puzzles from the thrift stores. At the moment, when the world seems to be on pause, venturing out to the thrift stores for a little bit of puzzle shopping isn’t an option. I am hoping that when we’re all allowed out again that there will be MANY puzzles to choose from at all the thrift stores. All those puzzles that have been sold out at all our favorite online and retail shops have to go somewhere, right?

My hope is that many of those people who have taken up assembling jigsaw puzzles during this time will donate their used puzzles when we’re allowed out again. Spread the Puzzle Love ❣

Perhaps I should be saving my pennies; not for a rainy day, but for the shower of used puzzles that will hopefully be falling on my local thrift stores once things return to some sense of normalcy. ⛱

Review: Baked With Love

On April 19, 2020April 19, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of good things to say about this puzzle, other than the thickness of the pieces was very good. It’s a pretty picture I suppose, but it’s really not my cup of tea/pile of pieces. Those are all the good things.

Usually MasterPieces has good quality; in fact, the puzzle completed immediately before this one – Quilting Country – was a MasterPieces puzzle with excellent quality. This one however, perhaps because it was a special edition (The Cake Boss), was less than optimal. There was terrible cutting, imperfect image reproduction, and not a great fit.

Baked With Love 1

You can see that the cutting was not up to par. Not that the pieces weren’t cut all the way through, it looks as if the die wasn’t even and it didn’t come close to getting the whole piece cut completely through. And this happened on many pieces, not just this one.

Box Image

Actual Puzzle

You can see the color difference between the box image on the left and the actual puzzle on the right. Actually the box image flowers look much more pink than even my picture shows. It doesn’t show as much here, but there was a big difference between the color on the box and the completed puzzle. In addition, while you can see each of the petals in the box image, on the puzzle itself they are just fuzzy, indistinct blobs of color.

Again, I have found that MasterPieces puzzles are normally good quality, but this special Cake Boss edition puzzle fell below their usual standards. In my mind they’re still a company that puts out good puzzles and it won’t stop me from continuing to buy them.

But if you run across a Cake Boss puzzle from MasterPieces, be wary. Baked with Love is definitely not recommended.

Details:

Title: Baked with Love
Artist: Unknown
Brand: Masterpieces
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Poor
Image: Poor
Box: Fair, opens at the top
Fit: Fair
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Random cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Poor quality, not recommended

Quilting Country

On April 17, 2020April 17, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This is another thrift store puzzle that mom found for us, she got this one especially for me because she knew how much I love puzzles with quilts. I’ve had this around for probably a couple of years, and last month was when it looked like it was the right time for this puzzle. I’m glad I finally got this one done, it was lovely!

I’m still surprised at how my mind works when I’m deciding what puzzle comes next. I can purchase a puzzle new, be excited about it and look forward to putting it together, but can put it off for months or even years because it just isn’t the right time. I have to be in the right mood, but there’s no way for me to explain what constitutes the right combination of time and mood – I don’t even know! I love quilt puzzles, but for some reason it took me more than two years to get this puzzle done because the time and mood weren’t right until now. 🤷‍♀️

It’s beautiful image by Eric Dowdle and his symmetrical style makes for truly fun but challenging puzzles. The image reproduction was gorgeous, and the overall quality was very good. The offset grid cut made it a little more difficult, but it kept me engrossed and involved – keeping my mind off the stresses and frustrations of the world.

Quilting Country 1

The chicken in the mailbox made me laugh! It’s something you don’t notice when looking at the entire picture, but a closer look shows some more humor and fun.

Quilting Country 2

Love this quilt! The colors and the pattern are beautiful, but really all of the quilts are.

Quilting Country 3

If you notice there are a lot of kids eating watermelon in this image, and there are even watermelons in this quilt. Again, it’s something you don’t notice until you’re studying patterns while putting together the pieces.

I’ve always had an appreciation for quilters and their ability to combine patterns and colors in such a beautiful way. I don’t think I have the artistic chops to be able to do that, combining different fabric patterns like they do. It’s amazing to me and I wish I had that talent; I don’t, so I’ll just have to be content with assembling beautiful quilt puzzles instead. 🧩😉🧩