Tag: 500+ pieces

The Pinwheel Gator

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

The Pinwheel Gator by Alex Beard – Liberty – 512 pieces

How cool is this puzzle? I stared at it over and over when I was window shopping on the Liberty site and ended up telling myself that if it fascinated me that much that I needed to get it for myself – so I did!

There’s something so fun about the image, and it absolutely didn’t disappoint in the assembly either. It’ll be no surprise at all when I tell you that I loved it. REALLY loved it! 💜❤💛💚💙

Liberty Puzzles is one of my favorite current wooden puzzle makers. The design of the puzzle pieces, how they fit together, the number of whimsies in each puzzle, the artists they work with – it all fits together to make extraordinary puzzles that have never disappointed me. Ever. I once had an issue with a puzzle and their customer service was beyond exceptional. I love Liberty Puzzles. 🧩

The whimsies in this one reminded me of Mardi Gras, which is why I wanted to post this puzzle today, on Fat Tuesday. I’m not a Catholic, so I don’t really do Ash Wednesday or give things up for Lent, but pretty much everyone knows about Mardi Gras and the celebrations they have in New Orleans.

Specifically these whimsies made me think of Mardi Gras and the parades in New Orleans. Aren’t they fabulous?!

If you look closely you’ll see that the whimsies of people are marching all the way around the image along the edges; they’re on all four sides. It was such a fun assembly, and I always love to see great wooden puzzles from the back – the design of the pieces and how it all works together make this proud puzzle geek extremely happy. This was such a great puzzle!

I really did have such a fun time putting this one together, it was an absolute joy. 😊

…Gator In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

The Pinwheel Gator by Alex Beard – Liberty – 512 pieces

This one is going slowly, but it’s nothing to do with the puzzle itself, I just can’t sit for long at the table. Besides, I don’t look at the box image when I’m working on a wooden puzzle; it makes it last longer and I can really be in the moment and enjoy everything a wooden puzzle has to offer.

Normally I don’t work from top to bottom, but that’s just how this one is going. I started with the purple color at the top and am working each color from there down. It’s quite fun!

From what I can see from the pieces I think this is another puzzle from Liberty that has an additional character/image to assemble. Remember The Seven Chakras where each little puzzle had a representation of the chakra that could be assembled as a multipiece whimsy? Well, I’m pretty sure this puzzle has a big gator that can be assembled with some of the pieces.

It doesn’t seem to be one like Birds, whose Alternate Solution used every piece; it looks as though only some of the pieces will be used.

I hope it isn’t too difficult, because I really wanna try to get it done when I’m finished with this puzzle. 🐊

The Pinwheel Gator In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

The Pinwheel Gator by Alex Beard – Liberty – 512 pieces

It’s sorted, but hasn’t been started yet; and there are SO MANY whimsy pieces that laying them all out to take a picture is gonna take a very long time! Therefore you just get a little preview today of some of the whimsy pieces in this gorgeous puzzle.

Many of the whimsies seem as though they’re Mardi Gras themed, and since Mardi Gras starts this Friday I thought this was the perfect time to get this puzzle going. I’ve had it here for months and months, and have really been looking forward to it. 😍

Hope you all have fabulous puzzles in the works right now, I know I’ll really be enjoying myself putting this beauty together!

Christmas Spirit

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

Christmas Spirit by Susan Winget – Ceaco – 577 pieces

This special edition Ceaco was quite a difficult puzzle to assemble, but I’m glad that I finally put it together. Mom bought this at the thrift store at least 5 years ago, and paid a whole 99 cents for it! I can’t say it was overly enjoyable, but it wasn’t too bad either.

Ceaco came out with a few puzzles backed in velvet many years ago, and this is the second one mom found at a thrift store. They’re interesting to work with…

Beautiful to look at isn’t it? Not so much fun to assemble on a fabric covered board though; the velvet grabs onto the fabric and sliding sections around is almost impossible. The irregular border meant that I didn’t start there, I started with the words in the middle. When you don’t start with the border all you can do is “guesstimate” where everything goes, and it’s never perfect; there’s always adjusting and wiggling pieces around to get things exactly where they belong. Once the pieces were laid down they didn’t want to let go of my beautiful fabric board; and because there are whimsy pieces in the puzzle, lifting a completed section to move it meant pieces falling out. Frustrating. Annoying. So, because the border wasn’t put together first, things had to be moved around to fit together properly – and the damn velvet made it so difficult!

The pieces are thicker than a regular Ceaco puzzle, and the velvet adds even more thickness. Otherwise the quality is only fair/good. Many of the pieces were bent and had image lifting off, the fit was very tight, and the finish is shiny. It’s a beautiful image, but working with this puzzle had me to ready to say NO MORE CHRISTMAS PUZZLES!

There were quite a few whimsy pieces as well as these letters, but so many of them were two pieces that weren’t easy to find on the initial sort – that means I didn’t take a picture of anything other than this.

I wish I’d enjoyed this more, but I just didn’t. 🤷‍♀️

If you find one at a thrift store, or somewhere out in the world – give it a try. Hopefully you’ll like it more than I did.

Christmas Spirit In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Thrift Store Puzzles8 Comments

Christmas Spirit by Susan Winget – Ceaco – 577 pieces

Yesterday I got a text from my puzzle pal Penny, that said “Stop the presses! Stacey has a very Christmasy/Santie Claus puzzle on her board??? Am I in the Twilight Zone?” No ma’am, it isn’t the Twilight Zone and you’re not having a stroke, I am working on my Christmas puzzles right now!

I’ve got one going in the bathroom, and this one on my board; and there are a couple of them finished already too! (You can see them on the November page if you don’t believe me – but I really did do them 😎)

This puzzle is a special edition Ceaco puzzle with a red velvet backing and whimsy pieces. Mom got it at the thrift store (she was the thrift store ninja), and it still has the sticker on it – she paid 99 cents for it! Unfortunately even though I just got started it is obvious it won’t be complete…

This lovely piece was in the box. It has obviously been chewed up by a pet; the velvet backing is gone, and the front of the piece looks like this. Sigh. Maybe it’s just me, but I think I’d rather a person just tossed this piece in the trash and didn’t put it in the box to be donated. It would be better to get to the end and realize there’s a missing piece than to find this while you’re laying out pieces and know for sure this puzzle won’t be complete. That’s just my opinion of course, but that’s how I feel.

Anyway, I won’t get much work done on this today as I’m off to deliver a birthday cake to a friend and probably spend a little time visiting. When I get back I’ll most likely be wiped out and spend the rest of the day in bed. So, I’ve got an hour or so this morning to puzzle, and then I’m off.

Happy puzzling today my friends!