Sunday 04-02-17 100% Complete!

On April 2, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, World's Largest Puzzle Progress3 Comments

I did it! I actually did it! I know it’s a bit anticlimactic since the entire puzzle is not all connected, but for now I’m thrilled with the fact that I have finished all FORTY THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED TWENTY pieces! Wow!

*actually I assembled 44,352 pieces since I’m an idiot and dropped a section after it was completed and had to reassemble it. 😐 Yup. I. Am. An. Idiot*

Bambi was as much fun as I’d hoped it would be, and I had a great time assembling it. Flower was the cutest thing, Thumper was more difficult than he looks and Bambi’s little legs were so skinny! It really was a fun section to put together and I’m so very proud of myself!

I’m a little sad too, this was 6 months of my life. And I’m done, it’s over. There is still the final assembly of the 10 sections to go, but who knows when I’ll be able to do that. But now there’s no more giant puzzle to work on every day. It’s been here for so long I don’t know what I’m going to do without it. 😦 Although, if I find I’m missing it terribly, I always have the extra Fantasia section I could assemble. It has a damaged piece and Ravensburger replaced it for me so I still have the original section!

I’m not sure why I decided I wanted to do an extremely large puzzle, but it seems I picked the perfect time. Until this puzzle was released there weren’t any large piece count puzzles that I wanted to do. If you’re going to spend a lot of money and time on a puzzle it needs to be an image that you like. The other giant puzzles had beautiful images, don’t get me wrong, but they just weren’t my cup of tea.

Less than a month after I decided to try to find a large puzzle to attempt, Ravensburger announced they were coming out with a new puzzle to break the record of world’s largest commercially available jigsaw puzzle. I love Disney movies, especially the older ones, and Ravensburger is my FAVORITE puzzle manufacturer so this was perfect!

It was released in Europe in September of last year, and I ordered it from a puzzle retailer in Germany. It arrived September 26, and the rest is history I suppose. 😉 Actually the history of me completing this puzzle is archived here on my blog!

So thanks to everyone for hanging around and “watching” me work on this project. It was fun and terrifying, exciting and scary, exhilarating and overwhelming – and I kept at it and I did it! 🙂 😮 🙂

Saturday 04-01-17

On April 1, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn World's Largest Puzzle ProgressLeave a comment

It’s no April Fools joke, I am one day away from being finished! I counted all the pieces left and there are 278 to go! I’ll get up tomorrow morning once the coffee is brewed and get myself in the puzzle room for a day of puzzling to finish this behemoth!

Everything is separated by shape and the left side of the puzzle is done so I can use that to know which shape I’m looking for. It’ll still take a lot of the day (unless I get up early), and I’ll be completely finished. What in the world am I gonna do with myself?

I’ll probably stick to 1000 piece puzzles for a while, unless I’m wishing to spend a little more time on a larger project. I have plenty of 4000 piece Heye puzzles to do, a 3000 piece Ravensburger, and plenty of 2000 piece puzzles as well. But perhaps for now I’ll stick to the smaller puzzles. I won’t know for sure how I’m feeling about it until I’m there. I may, as is usual for me, completely change my mind and do something completely different. 🙂

Anyway, tomorrow is the big day! I’ll be finished, but I have no idea when I’ll be able to actually assemble the entire thing, that may be a while. I sorta have to make up my mind about where the puzzle is going to end up. 😐

Friday 03-31-17

On March 31, 2017May 19, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn World's Largest Puzzle ProgressLeave a comment

It’s starting to move faster now. I spent most of the day at mom’s working on the puzzle I got her for Christmas but between early morning and later in the evening I managed to get a couple of hundred pieces put in. 🙂

I should be done on Sunday. OH MY GOODNESS I should be done on Sunday! Completely done. How in the world did I do that? Of course I guess if I’m really missing working on this puzzle I could always assemble the extra Fantasia section with the damaged piece. At this moment I’m thinking ……..NOPE. Of course that does make me think that if I end up donating the puzzle somewhere or it ends up with someone else I’d always be able to assemble and frame that section of Fantasia as a reminder. I just cannot seem to make up my mind what to do with this puzzle. If only I had a wall anywhere in my house big enough to display it. I don’t. Not even close. I don’t even have a family member with a wall in their home big enough! Damn it!

So don’t leave me now, in 2 days this entire thing will be finished. I have no idea when I’ll be able to completely assemble it, that somewhat depends on where it’s going to end up. But at the very least I will have all the pieces put together!

Thursday 03-30-17

On March 30, 2017May 19, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Flower finally has his entire tail! Still the cutest little guy in this image if you ask me. 🙂

My mom keeps commenting on how much bigger the sections seem in person, that the pictures on the blog don’t give you any sense of how large it actually is. I took this picture today to hopefully show some perspective. This is my hand, which is about as large as one of Thumper’s feet, or Bambi’s ear.

It definitely makes the puzzle look larger – especially when you scroll back up and look at the whole thing! I know, a photographer I am not. I do the best I can. The colors look much brighter in this picture, a lot more true to life. I was able to leave the overhead light on because glare wasn’t a problem taking the picture from this angle. This shows how bright and pretty the colors actually are. 😎

According to my count there are just over 800 pieces left to assemble, and I can’t put into words how excited but sad that makes me. I’m super proud of myself for sticking with it, especially when I dropped one of the sections trying to get a better picture and had to assemble it twice! It definitely doesn’t feel like it, but holy guacamole, I’ve been working on this giant puzzle for SIX MONTHS!

So I’ve probably still got 3 or 4 days left to go, depending on if I’m feeling well enough to sit and work on it. Pretty much all that’s left is flowers and whatever Thumper is on top of – probably a rock.

I’ve got all the pieces on trays so I’m ready to get going and finish this thing!

Oh man, I’d better slow down or I’m gonna finish this thing!

Wednesday 03-29-17

On March 29, 2017May 19, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn World's Largest Puzzle ProgressLeave a comment

Looking good, right?

Tomorrow I’m hoping to get all the grass done and then all that will be left is the white flowers at the bottom and the rock or stump – whatever Thumper is lying on. The grass isn’t too difficult with the different blades showing, it’s a little easier to match up the blades and shades of green. I didn’t work on Flower at all today, so if I finish the grass and am still feeling up to it I may try to get his tail finished.

I want it to last, but I also want to be done! I still haven’t figured out yet what to do with it, and I can’t really assemble the whole thing until I have a plan as to what’s going to happen with it afterward. I want pictures of the entire puzzle assembled, but I really don’t want to assemble it only to have to disassemble it afterward back into the 10 sections. Arrgghh! I have to make a decision! 😕