Tag: 500+ pieces

Interior

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Interior by William Ireland – Liberty Puzzles – 527 pieces

This puzzle was so much fun! Usually painterly images like this aren’t my pile of pieces, and perhaps with a cardboard puzzle this wouldn’t have been as entertaining, but put that artwork on top of a Liberty Puzzle and I am all over it!

It’s my first time with artwork by William Ireland, and there’s something about his art that draws me in. There must be something about it, because normally I would never choose something like this for puzzling. I’m not sure if it’s his use of color or perhaps the symmetry – something made me stop when I saw this, and kept me thinking about it long enough to decide to order it.

The whimsies were gorgeous, of course they were. They always are, and as usual I didn’t find all of them when the pieces were laid out on trays.

There were several multipiece whimsies, the grandfather clock and birdcage for example, that I was able to find and assemble, but also several of them I wasn’t able to get them all on my first look through all the pieces. Opening up a Liberty Puzzle for the first time and finding all the wonderful shapes and whimsies is almost a magical experience for me. Mom and I used to spend so much time on that first look-through, it’s special; we never took it for granted and I try not to get jaded and remember how much fun there is in just looking at the pieces and seeing what the designers came up with.

There’s so much to see from the back, and thankfully I got an excellent image of it. Even now, just as I am writing this up I found something that I hadn’t noticed before – what looks like a fishbowl has smoke coming out of it leading up to the beautiful fish shape. How did I miss that before?

This really was an enjoyable assembly, and I consciously tried to make it last as long as I could. I forgot though that my son has gotten more and more interested in puzzling, and goes into the puzzle room when I’m not there to work on them. When I got up this morning the puzzle was almost entirely finished, even though last night there was almost a whole tray of pieces left to put in. Oh dear. He’s getting better at it and doing much more than he used to – it makes me so happy!

Interior In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling8 Comments

Interior by William Ireland – Liberty Puzzles – 527 pieces

Currently this gorgeous Liberty puzzle is on my board and I am reveling in the fun of assembling it. There are so many little wonderful tableaus going on with the whimsy pieces, it’s so entertaining to watch them all come together. In the lower right corner you can find a couple dancing, the old Victrola is playing and musical notes are floating out.

You can also see an old grandfather clock sticking out of the bottom section, what a fantastic piece! If you can’t tell yet I am very much enjoying this puzzle. 😎

I absolutely love this multipiece whimsy: lying on the couch with lots of pillows, some comfy slippers, a good book, being kept company by furry friends – it’s so good! I haven’t worked my way to the section where it fits into the puzzle yet, which is why it’s got a white background; it’s still sitting on a tray waiting for placement. But it’s so cute that I can’t seem to stop staring at it, even though I’m not quite close to where it belongs in the image yet.

It’s been so enjoyable putting this one together that I am purposely drawing it out to get maximum entertainment from the assembly. I adore the image, and the puzzle itself is just as gorgeous. 😍

Peacock and Pattern

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Peacock and Pattern by Jane Tattersfield – Liberty Puzzles – 508 pieces

Man did I have a good time with this one, but it went together exactly the opposite of what I’d planned. When I looked at the image on the box I thought to myself that the easiest way to assemble this would be to start with the peacock in the center and work my way outwards. But when I was laying out all the pieces the puzzle told me that my initial plan was NOT the way to go.

Most wooden puzzles aren’t ones that you can start with the edges, especially if they are Victorian cut or have crazily shaped pieces. This image has a small border on it though, and that made it the most logical place for me to begin. Instead of rigidly sticking to my mental plan of how things were going to go together I decided to shift and let the puzzle lead where it wanted to go. After assembling the border, it flowed quite naturally into the yellow patterns, and so on. I did put together the peacock’s body and head earlier on, but the rest of him wasn’t finished until the very end.

This puzzle was more difficult than I’d bargained for, they’ve upped the difficulty level of their piece cuts at Liberty if you ask me. There were many times that I thought I knew exactly why I was looking for, but I most certainly did not. There were tabs where you thought you just needed to find that correct shape, but actually you would end up with two different pieces whose ends joined together to make the shape you needed. It’s hard to describe with words, but it was a tricky cut that required a little extra brain power, and it reminded me a bit of the 100+ year-old Parker Bros. Pasttime puzzle that mom and I assembled together.

Forgive the cockeyed picture, my apologies. Sometimes you can’t really tell on your phone whether you’ve got it right – or maybe that’s just me. I should blame my age, but I’m extremely tired today so please insert your own joke about old ladies and failing eyesight here…

Now that the jokes are out of the way, don’t you just love to see the back of such a well designed puzzle? I know I do!

They had this sort of picture setup on the Liberty website, and I loved it so much I wanted to recreate it here. It was fiddly work getting certain pieces out of the way without disturbing others, but I think it ended up making for an excellent picture, don’t you?

So many absolutely beautiful whimsy pieces in this puzzle, and so many multipiece whimsies as well. Aren’t they gorgeous? I need to get my thesaurus out and find some new adjectives to tell you how amazing these puzzles are. Fabulous!

Peacock and Pattern In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Peacock and Pattern by Jane Tattersfield – Liberty Puzzles – 508 pieces

No, I haven’t made today alliteration day, I’ve decided to work on a gorgeous Liberty wooden puzzle to try to get out of this funk I find myself in. Peacock, pattern, progress – pure puzzle pleasure in perfect proportion! So far it seems to be helping, let’s hope it stays that way.

Another beautiful image by Jane Tattersfield, she was the artist on another Liberty puzzle I assembled and LOVED from over eight years ago – Birds. I knew the minute I saw this one that it would also be great fun, and so far it has been. I adore images that aren’t the usual puzzle go-to subjects; hot air balloons, kittens, landscapes, Coca-Cola Santa, etc. When they’re out of the ordinary that immediately makes me stop and take notice, and this one is perfect for me.

Normally with these puzzles you don’t start with the edges, but this image has a border that was easy to pick out and that’s where I began. It naturally flowed from there into the yellow patterns, and I’m still working on getting all of them in place – or at least close to it. When I was working on it yesterday I found myself ignoring everything (husband, children, laundry timers, bodily requirements like food, water, etc.) in pursuit of just… one… more… piece…

It’s a very good thing for your mental health to get into that meditative state where the puzzle is the only thing on your mind. What shape do I need? Do these colors match? Where should this one go? I’m praying a couple of days working on this stunning puzzle with it’s bright, glorious colors and amazingly shaped wooden pieces will continue to help improve my mental health and maybe help get me back to my usual puzzle nirvana.

I took my computer off the puzzle (yes, I put it right on top of whatever puzzle I’m assembling when I’m working on the blog) once I was done typing up this post, and really looked at it while sitting far back in my puzzling chair. The angle, the depth of the wooden pieces, it was/is absolutely gorgeous. I had to take another picture from that angle to show you, isn’t this a beautiful puzzle?!

Happy puzzling today my friends. Namaste. 🧩🙏

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. 😊