Nevertheless, She Persisted

Nevertheless, She Persisted by Feitzky LLC – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces

This thrift store find is a puzzle I’ve been wanting to do for a while and I finally found it. I wish I had better things to say about it, but my copy had either been VERY pre-loved and assembled many times or it was an extremely loose fit to begin with. Love the image – love it – but the fit left a bit to be desired.

Cobble Hill is a brand I consider to be towards the higher end of the quality scale: their linen paper makes for an excellent hand feel, their random cut makes for an entertaining assembly, the image reproduction has always been stellar, and the fit is usually good/very good. This puzzle may have been cut at the end of a run when the die is becoming duller making for a looser fit, I can’t be sure as this is a thrift store purchase. I still consider Cobble Hill puzzles to be very nice quality and I never hesitate to buy one if the image speaks to me.

To say I’m shocked that the puzzle is complete would be an understatement. The pieces were loose in the box, which was not taped up well at all. When I got to the checkout at the store and starting putting my puzzles on the counter I reached for the box under this one to find two puzzle pieces sitting there, they had come out of the box when I put it in my cart! The look and feel of the pieces told me they were Cobble Hill, so back into the box they went; but I was thinking about it all the way home and had convinced myself that there were going to be missing pieces in this one. When it came to putting in the last few pieces, I saw that their were four left – and four spaces – and I said, out loud, to no one, “I can’t believe it!”.

The piece shape is very prominent in this puzzle, which doesn’t at all detract from the enjoyment of the assembly for me, but does make getting a good picture difficult. I took several close up pictures of the puzzle but even close up it’s challenging to see the image behind all the lines. I wasn’t happy with any of them, even after messing with them in editing, so I’ve just taken a picture of the poster that came with the puzzle.

As a woman who supports women I love the thought behind this image. Without getting too political however, I question the inclusion of one of these women (who did NOT support females), and also the exclusion of the woman whose persistence in the face of bullies and having things “mansplained” to her before being silenced is the reason that Nevertheless, she persisted became a rallying cry for feminists. Just my own personal opinion of course – we ladies are still allowed to have our own opinions about things.

The loose fit was quite a bother to work with, but I still found myself lost in the assembly at times, completely focused on the pieces and where they went. I’m glad I finally got to assemble this puzzle and I did enjoy it, just not as much as I’d hoped. Still, Cobble Hill puzzles are good quality and I never hesitate to recommend them.

Sugar Overload

Sugar Overload – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces

What better puzzle for this month? October is the month with the absolute best candy holiday ever – Halloween! If you think it looks pretty easy, I was right there with you until the sorting started; but once I saw the pieces I knew it would be quite a difficult assembly. And it was, but I’m pretty darn proud of myself for completing it.

The quality of this puzzle was amazing, and really I enjoyed working with it. The cut is actually a modified ribbon cut (Cobble Hill calls it random/quirky), with quite a few interestingly shaped pieces that made it extremely entertaining to assemble. The fit was excellent; entire sections could be picked up easily to move them around. The finish is matte which helps with the glare caused by artificial overhead lighting. There was quite a bit of puzzle dust, but that seems to be an increasing problem with every company lately. I don’t hold it against them, because it doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of the assembly for me.

The caramels were the first thing I assembled, it was easy to find the pieces because they had the shiny wrapping on them. I used to love eating these but I haven’t had one for a very long time. I have specific memories of my sisters and I sitting around the table unwrapping entire bags of these so that mom could melt them to make caramel apples in the fall – how we loved eating them! There was a huge apple orchard in our hometown, and we’d all go to pick apples in the fall. Some of them turned into homemade apple pies, some became canned filling for pies and crumbles to enjoy in the middle of winter, and the best ones ended up as caramel apples that were made with love by our momma – and they were so unbelievably good. 🍎💖

This was another section that was easy (somewhat) to find and assemble. When hubby came into the puzzle room to kiss me goodnight he pointed to this section and in particular the candies with the sugary beads on them and said “those are sooooo good!”. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the flat square-shaped candies anywhere before. Have you? What do they taste like?

The jelly candies at the bottom and top of this picture were easy to sort, but not as easy to assemble. With all the shine on many of the candies it was difficult to know what piece was next. The shine looks white, but it could be shiny where the pieces connect and your brain tricks you into thinking you need a certain color, but actually you don’t. It made for a somewhat difficult assembly, but I enjoyed the challenge of it.

Once I had put together each bowl of candy that was relatively easy to find, I resorted to sorting by color and putting things together that way. When I got to the end, the only pieces left were red, yellow, and the white of the bowls; those pieces were then sorted by shape to finish it up. It wasn’t to difficult to finish it, but getting there certainly was more of a challenge than I bargained for.

An enjoyable, but definitely difficult puzzle. If you’ve got a sweet tooth, beware. It isn’t as easy as it looks!

Portrait of a Quilt

Portrait of a Quilt by Helen Klebesadel – Cobble Hill – 500 pieces

Once I actually opened the box for this puzzle and saw the pieces it had to be next. An explanation wouldn’t really make sense, it just had to be the next one on my board, and I’m so glad it was.

The larger pieces of this puzzle, the bright colors and interesting patterns – it made for excellent, entertaining puzzling and I adored it with every single piece I placed. ❤

Excellent Cobble Hill quality; the linen pieces felt amazing in my hands, and the fit was near perfect. The image reproduction is stunning, and I cannot recommend this puzzle enough!

I hope whatever puzzle you’re working on right now is as much fun as this one was. Happy puzzling my friends! 🧩

Art Nouveau Tiles

Art Nouveau Tiles by Barbara Behr – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces

This gorgeous and challenging puzzle tested me at times, but I loved every minute of it! The artwork is so interesting, it was a perfect puzzle at just the right time.

Excellent quality, great fit, and amazing reproduction. The tiles actually seemed to have the texture and crackled look of real tiles. Stunning!

I couldn’t pick my favorites, they’re all so lovely in their own way; here’s a closeup of each quarter of the image….

I suppose I should tell you what my favorites were in each section, but they were all so beautiful it’s very difficult to choose.

Here are some more pretties, wouldn’t they look lovely somewhere in a home?

I love the turkey in this section – he’s up at the very top. And that brilliant blue in the bottom right corner is divine.

And here are more beauties, they’re all so lovely in their own way – and all so different from each other. I just cannot choose favorites.

Not Quite In Progress

Art Nouveau Tiles by Barbara Behr – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces

I starting sorting this one yesterday, but ended up spending the rest of the day in bed. Hopefully today will be better and I’ll finish the sorting and actually get to put pieces together. 🤞

My fellow puzzle blogger and friend from Finland/Germany (Puzzler1909) assembled this puzzle a while ago, and when I saw it I knew it would be great fun. It’s so beautiful, and absolutely my kind of image. I can’t wait to get started!

Also, happy Star Wars Day to all you fans out there – especially my two boys. 💖 May the 4th be with you!