Tag: 1000 pieces

Vintage Fabrics and Notions

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles7 Comments

Vintage Fabrics and Notions by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

What a fantastic puzzle! I adored this beauty from the first piece to the last, and had to keep stopping myself from working on it because it was getting completed way too quickly. Perhaps I need a 2000 piece Aimee Stewart image to work on?

The quality of this Buffalo puzzle was excellent. The image reproduction was stunning, with bright, crisp colors, no blurriness or fuzziness; the pieces were the usual variety of Buffalo shapes and the fit was the best I’ve worked with from this brand for quite a while. When all was said and done I was highly impressed with this puzzle and it’s quality.

This was the first section that I completed, it made me feel a little nostalgic. Mom used to have so many vintage sewing notions and especially fasteners and buttons, I loved to look through them while she was repairing clothes or making something new.

This pattern also made me think of Mom. When we’d all pile in the car to go shopping at the fabric store I would try to keep myself from being bored by looking through all the patterns. Mom spent much longer in the store than my sisters and I liked, and after a while we’d start to whining about having to be there so long. But for the most part she was buying fabrics, patterns, and notions because she was making clothes; and she was making clothes because it was much cheaper than buying them. She made all my prom dresses when I was in high school, and she even made my wedding dress.

Mom was amazing at just about every craft there was, and I didn’t appreciate it when I was a child; when I became a young woman though it was a different story. She was a whiz at doing all those things, and I was a little jealous of her talents; I very much appreciated all the work she put in making things for us all and made sure I told her so. Often.

All the wild and colorful fabrics in this section were really fun to assemble. I’m not sure I would want any clothes from them, but they were entertaining in this puzzle.

I had the best time with this puzzle, and I assembled it at the right time too – our cable and internet went out the night I started this beauty, so of course I had something fabulous to occupy myself with when there was no tv to watch and the rest of the family were losing their minds.

We all should have some unplugged hobbies we can turn to when we need to, don’t you think?

Maleficent In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

Maleficent (Disney Villainous) – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

Unfortunately the only progress I have made is to start sorting this one, and the sorting tells me it isn’t going to be a quick assembly either. I’ve only done one other Disney Villainous puzzle, Queen of Hearts, and it was very entertaining even though it was a bit of a challenge.

The image for Maleficent seems much darker than the Queen of Hearts though, and I’m certain it will be a bit more difficult. But I’ve looked at the image closely, and I’m hoping it won’t be as hard as perhaps it seems. Except the border, the border is gonna suck just like the last one did. 🤔

My youngest has been trying to get me to assemble this one for weeks and I’ve kept telling him no, that it’s too dark; well, now is the time. I have no idea why, he didn’t even pick it out this time. Maybe I want to get it over with. Maybe I’m looking for a bit of a challenge.

Maybe I’ve lost my mind.

Fantasy Golf (What If? #18)

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Fantasy Golf by Geoff Tristram (What If? #18) – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

It’ll be no surprise that I had a great time assembling this puzzle, Geoff Tristram’s artwork is always so bright and colorful and full of his sense of humor. It makes for excellent puzzling!

With mystery puzzles like this where the box image is not the final image of the puzzle, I only show you the one character shown on the box as a hint. In this case the character was reversed and facing the other direction on the box, so I reversed the image of my picture to make it match. I also darkened around the edges so the character is the focus.

When I was starting my first What If? puzzle I searched for an image of the box to put on my homepage to show what puzzle I was working on, and the first thing that popped up in my results was a picture of the finished puzzle. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I couldn’t un-see it, and it ruined the fun I would have had figuring out the puzzle for myself. I never want to do that to anyone else, so I do not show the completed puzzles here. Ever.

In Fantasy Golf, the box says “Have you ever experienced the frustration, fury and despair that only golf can deliver? What If golf suddenly became easier to play – almost a “walk in the park”? The picture on this box shows the disheartened and gloomy golfers at Hacketton Hope Golf Club. The puzzle inside this box shows a new way to play this most challenging sport!”

In my opinion these puzzles aren’t terribly difficult. The box image shows you what the characters are wearing (most of the time), and you just have to figure out how things end up. You do that the same way you would assemble any other puzzle, by finding colors or patterns that match and putting them together. The more you assemble, the more the idea of the image takes shape and before you know it the mystery of the image is clear. The puzzles are in cartoon form, so the colors are bold and bright, and it’s easy to pick out a pattern or color and start building.

The wordplay is always entertaining as well. Did you catch it earlier in the name of the club? Hacketton Hope. Hack it and hope. It’s all over this puzzle in the names of golf clubs, people, even the brands of clothing. It’s one of the reasons his puzzles are a favorite of mine, we have similar silly senses of humor. 😁

If you’ve never given What If? puzzles a try, I highly recommend them. Great Ravensburger quality, excellent images, and a fun little mystery to solve.

Vintage Summer Books

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Vintage Summer Books by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

We all know how much I adore the artwork of Aimee Stewart, so normally starting one of her puzzles I know that I’ll really enjoy the assembly. This one had me a little wary, I thought perhaps all the flowers and greenery would be quite challenging – I was completely wrong, it was a FANTASTIC assembly, with just the right degree of difficulty. 💚🌼

I adore the look of this section and it was one of the first ones that I put together. There’s something about vintage advertisements, they make me happy.

Just look at all the beautiful colors in this one little section, absolutely stunning! The flowers weren’t nearly as difficult as I thought they’d be, in fact I enjoyed putting them all together.

The piece in the center with the couple kissing was the last piece to be placed in this book. I looked at the piece, was trying to find colors to match it with and then suddenly realized it was a couple. All the titles of the books were complete and in place, so I knew then that this must be the last piece of “In Love’s Garden”; none of the other book titles seemed as though a man and a woman kissing should be on the cover. 💏

This puzzle was much more entertaining and enjoyable than I thought it would be, and I went into it knowing it would be fun! Don’t you love it when a puzzle is even better than you thought?

…Mad In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Most Everyone is Mad by Dean MacAdam – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

I’ve haven’t gotten too much completed on this puzzle so far; some nasty virus has taken up residence and for the past couple of days I’ve been in bed trying to rest and feel better. Thank goodness today I’m finally feeling up to sitting at the puzzle table again and have accomplished a bit this morning.

Most of the principle characters are done or almost done, except of course for the Cheshire Cat who’s smack in the middle of the image. He’s next, and that nasty smile of his should make it pretty easy.

This is my third puzzle with artwork by Dean MacAdam, and his images are so full of fun and interesting characters that they make for excellent puzzling. There are a couple newer fairytale images I have yet to purchase (Goldilocks and Red Riding Hood), and he’s got another one called The Dog Walker that looks too adorable for words. 🤎🐕🐩🐕‍🦺🤎

Uh oh, I feel the PADS kicking in…where’s my wallet?!