Review: My Sister’s Closet

On November 22, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

My Sister’s Closet by Tricia Reilly-Matthews – Sunsout – 300 pieces

I liked the quality and the image of this puzzle very much. Sunsout is hit or miss for me sometimes. We all have different things that are important to us in a puzzle, and sometimes the fit of Sunsout is too tight and (for me) it takes away from the enjoyment of puzzling. This 300 piece puzzle though, was a great fit and such a sweet image. 🙂

I don’t believe I’ve worked a puzzle by this artist before, she seems to capture the essence of children. I don’t know another way to explain it, you can tell looking at the little girls in this picture that the artist knows and loves children. Once I looked her up it all made sense, Tricia Reilly-Matthews teaches art to children from kindergarten to 5th grade – of course she paints children so well!

It’s amazing how tastes seem different depending on how much you have to spend on something. This image is very cute, but I don’t think I’d purchase it if I had to pay full price. It’s just not the type of image I’m most drawn to. But ask me to only pay 69 cents for it, and I’m there! Absolutely I’d love to do this puzzle! I wonder if that speaks more to my puzzle addiction, or to my tendency to be a tightwad/cheapskate?

Whichever is the answer, I’m glad mom found this puzzle to do, I enjoyed it very much!

Details:

Title: My Sister’s Closet
Artist: Tricia Reilly-Matthews
Brand: Sunsout
Piece count: 300 pieces
Size: Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Average, quite large for a 300 piece puzzle
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Dear God I Nearly Missed the Bus

On November 21, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This adorable 100 piece puzzle is deceptively difficult! We knew after completing the first of three that were purchased together at the thrift store that these little puzzles take a little more brain power than your average 100 piece kid’s puzzle. I look at the finished image and think “how in the world was it that hard?” I don’t have the answer, all I know is that it was a little bit of a challenge.

They’re very cute, and although a little thin the pieces are sturdy and fit together well. I haven’t come across any other Vista Puzzles before, these are the first I’ve seen. For a kid’s puzzle, I’d say they were about mid range, quality wise. A quick search online leads me to believe Vista Puzzles aren’t in production any more. (I could be wrong, I haven’t yet had my entire first cup of coffee)

There’s one more of these for us to complete so we can donate it, perhaps we’ll get it taken care of on our next visit day. 🙂

The Puzzle that Wrapped up Christmas

On November 20, 2017November 20, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews5 Comments

So now we’ve come to the end of my wooden puzzle “experiment”. This puzzle was the last of 5 companies that I’ve tried. I enjoyed this puzzle very much, even though I chose a puzzle from the extra difficult jigsaw page. I didn’t find it all that difficult to be honest, but it sure was fun! I’ll have a post soon regarding all the wooden puzzles, and what I’ve learned.

Wentworth Wooden Puzzles is a British company that has an excellent reputation for quality puzzles. They’re the last of the reasonably priced companies I could find, and their catalog is quite large. They have puzzles starting at what they call a micro-puzzle (30-40 pieces), all the way up to 1500 pieces. The price is on par with the other companies I’ve tried, and I’ve heard good things about their puzzles so I gave it a go (even though with shipping from the UK it was a bit more).

Most of their puzzles include whimsy pieces, but the majority of the cuts seem a bit “regular” to me; I had already gotten a puzzle with regular pieces so I definitely wanted something different. This led me to their extra difficult page where I found this interesting wrapping paper puzzle. I loved it! And, it has repetitive reindeer shaped pieces in addition to the repetitive image for more of a challenge – Merry Christmas to me! 🎄 Here’s the back of the puzzle so you can see the pieces…

The pieces are about half as thick as the pieces from the other companies I’ve tried, but somehow almost feel more dense. There seems to be a coating or backing applied to the back of the wood as well. Although the pieces are thinner, they are still quite sturdy and they still have that wonderful, satisfying plunk when they fall into place. It’s bliss. 🙂

I poured the pieces out of the bag and thought “What have I gotten myself into?” It was overwhelming to see so many similarly shaped pieces. But once I settled down and really looked at them, I could see small differences in the shapes which allowed me to sort the pieces with purpose. Once the sorting was done, I picked 2 pieces that went together and started building – it really wasn’t very difficult for me at all. I loved it!

I enjoyed this puzzle very much and thought their quality was excellent! I’m still looking forward to trying one of their regular puzzles to see if I like the cut. Perhaps soon I can review one of those regularly cut puzzles, maybe a micro-puzzle?

*I may or may not have gone completely off the rails and ordered more than 30 of their micro-puzzles. I cannot recall at this time your honor.* 😁

Details:

Title: The Puzzle that Wrapped up Christmas
Artist: iStock Photo
Brand: Wentworth Wooden Puzzles
Piece count: 300 pieces
Size: Approx. 14 x 11 in. (36 x 25 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: 1/8″ wood
Cutting: Excellent
Image: Excellent
Box: Excellent – very sturdy box, pieces come in a fabric bag
Fit: Excellent
Puzzle Dust: None
Piece cut: Repetitive – extra challenging
Piece shapes: Repetitive – reindeer
Finish: Matte finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Excellent, highly recommended

Song of the Unicorn

On November 19, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

I had this one in my puzzle room for at least a month before I finally decided to do it. When it was time to decide on the next puzzle to be assembled I would sometimes pass it over immediately, and sometimes I would open the box, stare at the pieces, and promptly put it away. Many times I have to be in the right mood to attempt a certain puzzle, and that was definitely true with this one – I think the border kept scaring me off. 😉

Unfortunately this was one of those Springbok puzzles that is EXTREMELY tight fitting. You can see in the picture above that the fit is so tight that the edges of the puzzle are curling upwards. Ugh. I really dislike puzzles that fit this way, it makes me question if I’m placing a piece correctly if I have to shove it into place. We’ve had plenty of Springbok puzzles that don’t fit this way, I wonder what the reason is for the fluctuations in the way they fit together.

I really like the artwork, but unfortunately the name of the artist was nowhere to be found on the box. I tried looking it up online, without success. I usually like to credit the artist, but my sleuthing skills seem to be lacking at the moment. If you know the artist, feel free to let me know in the comments. Thanks!

This is a “vintage” puzzle from approximately 1982. That makes me feel pretty old! I was just starting high school in the early 80’s – am I vintage? Classic? Antique?

Yoshi

On November 18, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Look at this adorable guy – what a bummer that he seems to have had a nose job, and they took a bit too much off the top! I was really looking forward to assembling this puzzle, it’s so cute and it reminds me of when my kids were little.

Their pieces are a bit thin, but relatively sturdy, and their catalog has some excellent and unique puzzles! They’ve got tv show puzzles from Game of Thrones, Supernatural, Rick and Morty, and the Golden Girls to video games like Super Mario Bros, Fallout, Pokemon, Space Invaders, and The Legend of Zelda. They’ve also got some comic book art from The Walking Dead and Court of the Dead, they’ve got puzzles you won’t see anywhere else.

I enjoyed this assembly and wish Yoshi were all there, he would have looked great on my son’s bedroom door.