Tag: Cobble Hill

Green

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Green by Shelley Davies – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces

I wasn’t sure whether or not I would like these color puzzles from Shelley Davies. I mean, they’re absolutely gorgeous – but would they be entertaining to assemble? Short answer is … yep! In fact, it was way more enjoyable than I’d imagined.

Would have loved to have a poster to help out with this puzzle; I know the ones for sale now have a poster included but mine is a few years old and didn’t come with one. It certainly would have been nice to have – especially since mine was in a smaller square box rather than the larger rectangular one. It was a little challenging to find some of the very small bits on such a small box cover.

The plate with all the queens on it was quite entertaining, and it looks great too. I wouldn’t really call this an educational puzzle, but I learned a little bit about the different queens and their reigns. 👑

This was the first section I assembled, the swirly gold pieces were the easiest to pick out. It’s always nice to have some small section to start with immediately after the border; and this is where I started.

There were SO many words in the whole puzzle, once I pulled them all out it was a little intimidating – but with a little perseverance I got there in the end. There were several colored pencils in the image as well, most with the name of the artist hand written on them.

I wasn’t sure I even wanted to give any of these color puzzles a try – and now I’m thinking we may need to get several more colors!

Party Balloons

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

Party Balloons by Suzan Lind – Cobble Hill – 500 pieces

Isn’t this a great puzzle image? As soon as I saw it I knew I had to get it, it was just too beautiful to pass up! The colors and patterns made for such an entertaining assembly – I wish it were also available in 1000 pieces, that would be even more fun.

The quality of this particular puzzle wasn’t as good as Cobble Hill usually is. I know that with the pandemic and the huge increase in demand for puzzles, things have been crazy in the puzzle world with manufacturers doing their best to get puzzles out and into the hands of puzzlers as soon as they can. I have history with this brand, so I know that their quality is usually quite good; therefore, even though this puzzle had a few problems I know that it isn’t indicative of the brand’s normally excellent quality.

That said, I should tell you that this puzzle had a very loose fit; many pieces were slightly bent, and some pieces that had very thin necks (spaces in between holes) were bent almost to the point of being torn in half. Because of all the bent pieces the finished puzzle didn’t lie completely flat; making the puzzle massage at the end of assembly not nearly as satisfying as usual.

It was still fun to assemble though and the finished puzzle is gorgeous. It has been put in a box to send on to the next puzzler for them to enjoy!

Frog Pile

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Frog Pile by Lori Anzalone – Cobble Hill – 500 pieces

I love frogs, and there are several frog figurines around my house, so of course I loved this image when I saw it; not only the subject matter, but they’re so bright and colorful – my kinda puzzle. It was more difficult than it looks, but not so much that it was frustrating. The perfect amount of challenge. The finished puzzle is absolutely stunning. 😍

The quality was pretty good, other than a very loose fit. Two or three pieces couldn’t be picked up to move to another place on the board without falling apart or using both hands. It wasn’t so bad that you couldn’t tell that you’d found the correct piece, but it wasn’t good either. With a lesser quality brand puzzle this would probably annoy me much more than it did with this one. The linen textured paper that Cobble Hill uses has such a great hand feel, the thick pieces and the overall quality of the brand made up for the shortcoming in the fit department.

The wet look on the frogs is done beautifully, and that little blue guy there has the best “smile” on his face! As far as his little buddy next to him, I think if I ever saw a black polka dotted frog out in nature I would steer pretty clear of it.

What can I say? Red is my favorite color, so I’m a little partial to the red ones. Doesn’t this one look like they’re ready to let you in on some juicy gossip they just heard at the pondwater cooler?

Psst. Did you hear what Veronica did last Friday at Señor Frogs? 😮

Storytime Kittens

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Storytime Kittens
Storytime Kittens by Amy Rosenberg – Cobble Hill – 350 pieces

A puzzle full of kittens? I know, right?! Even though this isn’t my typical genre of puzzle image, it was still pretty darned enjoyable and I would recommend it – especially to multi-generational families who enjoy puzzling together.

Every time I assemble a Cobble Hill puzzle I am reminded of what a great quality product they put out. The linen finish on their puzzles gives not only a great hand feel, but cuts down on glare and make for such a pleasant puzzling experience. The pieces are thick, they fit together well, and the image reproduction is lovely. Why am I not assembling more of their puzzles? I have no answer to that right now – because I should be, they make me happy.

This is a “family puzzle”, which means that there are three different sizes of pieces. And this brand does it the way that seems most practical to me; large on one side, medium in the middle, and smallest on the other side. I have assembled family puzzles where the largest pieces are the outer edge and the pieces get smaller towards the middle – that makes no sense to me. The point of a family puzzle is that everyone can work together, but if the entire outside of the puzzle has to be put together before the smaller pieces fit anywhere, you cannot work together; you have to wait for one section to be finished before you can actually begin. Nonsensical in my book.

Even though I almost always work on family puzzles by myself, I like that Cobble Hill family puzzles are made so that everyone can work together.

Storytime Kittens 1

This side of the puzzle has the large pieces, and takes up the most space. I love the bright colors and fun image, it made for an entertaining assembly.

Storytime Kittens 2

You can see in this image how the pieces fade from larger to smaller, and it’s pretty seamless and well done. And even though we all know kitties aren’t my preferred animal for puzzle images this was some really beautiful artwork by Amy Rosenberg.

By the way, I’ve had sort of an epiphany about why I enjoy family puzzles so much; and it truly just occurred to me this morning as I was getting ready to type up this post. It’s the sorting! It’s the ease of sorting differently sized pieces that almost buoys my spirits. Sorting is the worst part of puzzles for me, even though my mild OCD requires that I sort; but having it made so much easier and faster because of the different sizes of the pieces makes all the difference. 😎

Quilts

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Quilts
Quilts – Cobble Hill – 500 pieces

Quilt puzzles make me happy, and this image was different than the norm. A stack of folded quilts doesn’t sound like an interesting image, but put them in the right order and it’s a beautiful little piece of artwork.

Cobble Hill puzzles are very good quality, and although I enjoy all of the different sizes and piece counts, their puzzles with large pieces are highly entertaining for me. Thankfully they are not a company that has only one piece shape, and are one of the few companies that use a truly random cut that makes an otherwise simplistic image more engaging.

I loved this puzzle from the first piece to the last, and would definitely recommend it. 💜