What’s In Progress?

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling16 Comments

The Quiltmaker Lady by Charles Wysocki – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

For me, this is what’s happening on my board. It’s been nearly two years since I’ve assembled a Charles Wysocki image – June of 2020 was the last time I worked on one! It’s going well, and I’m enjoying myself; you know I can’t resist an image with quilts. 🧵💜

So what is everyone else working on? Any awesome puzzles you’d like to share? I’m always in the mood to see beautiful, interesting, or just entertaining looking puzzles. Got a link to the puzzle image I can check out?

I’m feeling the need for some retail therapy and I’m looking for some suggestions. (Don’t worry about enabling my PADS, I’ll be buying puzzles with or without your help – just looking for some potentially great puzzles I might have missed!)

Shopping for puzzles doesn’t solve any real world problems for me, but it takes my mind off things for a while – and if I’ve done it right in the end there are new puzzles on the way to my house! 🧩🏡

Songbirds

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles9 Comments

Songbirds by Neiko Ng – Mudpuppy – 500 pieces

This is a cute image, but it really wasn’t as entertaining for me as I’d hoped. There’s nothing wrong with it, really, perhaps my mood wasn’t right. It just seemed like it would be more fun than it actually was. Just my own personal opinion.

The quality was good. In typical Mudpuppy fashion there is only one piece shape – what I call ballerinas – two prong/two hole pieces. Boring. The reproduction is good, but the finish is very shiny; and the backing is that “sharp” white backing that I do not care for. Overall it’s a good quality puzzle, it just wasn’t my pile of pieces.

Skate Night (1000)

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Skate Night by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

Happily, this puzzle was even more fun than the 300 pieces of this image that I completed a couple of years ago. I’m so glad it was finally released in a larger piece count!

Excellent quality all around, Buffalo puzzles have a great fit, nice variety of shapes, excellent reproduction, and a great cut. I haven’t been disappointed by any of their puzzles lately that I can recall. Sometimes there’s a bit of puzzle dust – but that’s par for the course and unless it’s excessive it doesn’t really bother me at all.

I didn’t really notice this the first time around, this is a ticket for the roller derby!

The words and image here for the “super skater” were the most challenging pieces for me to find. I’d go through once and be certain I’d found them all. Then I’d assemble the pieces and see that I was missing SO MANY. It’s always interesting to me when you are absolutely sure that you know exactly what you’re looking for, and when you end up with the right piece it isn’t nearly what you thought.

Becoming familiar with the pieces, and the way your perception of them changes as you work on a puzzle is part of the enjoyment for me. You start off looking through them, and unless it’s a simple image it takes time to get to know them – and get to know the whole of the image you’re working on. What seems like a bunch of random splotches of color or figures seems difficult at first. Then you realize what belongs with what, and you start to see the differences in each color or each piece of a larger image; for me it’s remarkably rewarding and satisfying.

Aimee Stewart’s digital artwork almost always makes me smile, her use of color is absolutely beautiful and her puzzles are such great fun for me to assemble. She’s number one on my list of puzzle artists and I’m always happy to have an Aimee Stewart puzzle to put together.

Exhibit A

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Exhibit A – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This is a companion puzzle to Yeti for 2022 that I posted on New Year’s Day. Apparently it’s Exhibit A in making the case that the Yeti does exist.

The image made for a goldilocks assembly; not too easy, not too difficult – it was just right. The quality was very good, as is usual for this brand. The fit can sometimes feel loose when you’re assembling it, but once you’ve got it together it stays together. You can pick up the finished puzzle, stand it on it’s end, even carry it around and it isn’t coming apart unless you take it apart.

Like the puzzle for New Year’s, this one also had an image on the back….

I always enjoy a double sided image. A close look at the back of this puzzle will show you that there is not one piece that is just all red; there is a bit of snowflake or the dots in between on every single piece. If you wanted to, you could assemble the back on it’s own as well. ❄

Three Puzzles in Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling7 Comments

So after finishing the Hansel and Gretel puzzle yesterday I took pictures and chose my next puzzle. It will be one of three puzzles I’ve got going on at the moment…

  • On the puzzle board will be Jungle Selfies – 12 individual mini puzzles
  • In the bathroom hubby and I are working on Brian in Shipping from MicroPuzzles
  • Exclusively in bed I’ll be working on a new puzzle (new to me) called Starfish that my dad brought me yesterday.

Dad has been going through some of mom’s things, with a little help from me when I’m able. And yesterday he came across two small puzzles that I’d never seen before and he brought them over to my house. They’re extremely different, interesting, and a great idea (in my humble puzzler’s opinion).

I don’t want to go into detail about them just yet, but I’m planning on writing up a nice, long post once I finish one of them. I’m quite excited to give them a try, and am hopeful that they will be as entertaining and engaging as they look.

I’ll only be working on the new ones in certain circumstances. But for the first one, at least, it should be done relatively quickly; most likely within a week or so. It’ll be a while before the post comes up in the queue, but you’ll definitely be reading about it eventually.

Trying out new puzzles is always a little thrilling for me, it’s about the only adventure that I get these days!