What’s In Progress?

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! 🧩🏡

Skate Night (1000)

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.

Vintage Atlas In Progress

Vintage Atlas – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

I was hoping to get this one finished yesterday, but life just wouldn’t cooperate at all. Hopefully though, since there are only three trays of pieces left it should be done sometime today.

This particular Re-marks puzzle is the best of the brand that I’ve worked with in a while. The fit is very good, the reproduction is excellent, and in general I’m loving working with it. Isn’t it nice when you can say that about the puzzle that you’re working on?

Hot Cocoa

Hot Cocoa by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

This super quick and entertaining puzzle was part of a swap with my fellow puzzle junkie Penny. To be honest I wasn’t certain I’d enjoy it, but was quite glad to be wrong about how delightful it would be.

It was a very good quality White Mountain puzzle, perhaps the best fitting of this brand that I’ve ever done – and I’ve done a lot. It wasn’t the too tight fit that leaves your thumb feeling sore from pushing pieces together with lots of pressure; and it wasn’t too loose where two pieces fall apart when you pick them up to move them. I was happy with the all-around quality, which isn’t something you normally hear me say about this brand.

I’ve chosen three sections to show close up, they’re all much older advertisements. It’s funny how something is perceived when it’s new to the market; we would never characterize hot cocoa in these ways now.

The greatest invention of the age. That’s pretty dang funny to me, as is the name. Instantaneous Chocolate – not very appetizing is it?

Breakfast cocoa sounds pretty good to me! Of course you could say that all the froofy coffee drinks people consume these days might be more chocolate than coffee so I suppose it isn’t that big of a leap. As for myself, I’m a simple gal. I enjoy a cup of coffee-flavored coffee, or a cup of hot chocolate – “never shall the twain meet.”

This is the one that really caught me by surprise. “Drink hot chocolate before…during…and after the game!” I’m not sure professional basketball players would agree that it’s a good idea. Could you imagine a basketball player sitting on the bench with a cup of cocoa before he or she gets back into the game? 🤣

Eggcellent In Progress

Eggcellent – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

Yesterday I finished sorting this beauty of a puzzle and completed the border as well. I have a couple of the eggs done, but there are many more to go. They’re all so bright and colorful, and I’m certain it’s going to be an eggcellent assembly!

I am very much looking forward to working on it today, and my plan is to put on my headphones and listen to music and block out the rest of the world. Here’s hoping it works – even for just a little while – I need a break. A break from people…and talking…and thinking…and phone calls, texts, noises, alarms, questions and all of the cacophony of this world that seems to be everywhere all the time.

Time with some wonderful music and a beautiful puzzle is exactly what I need. 🎶🧩🎶