World War II Posters – White Mountain Puzzles – 1000 pieces
I adore collage puzzles, and this one was no exception. As an added treat all the posters were interesting and actually had my mother and I looking things up online to find out more information. Apparently saving your used “waste fats” like bacon grease or meat drippings for use in explosives was one of the ways people could help in the war effort. Also saving scrap metal, rags, not wasting food, not traveling, etc. So many interesting tidbits!
Collage puzzles seem to suck me in because finishing one small section leads to having pieces already in place for the next section. It’s easy to pick out all the pieces of the same color to work on each “little puzzle”. This was a super fun puzzle for me; informative, interesting, and just plain cool looking! Thanks to my daughter for buying this one – I’m not sure if I would have purchased it myself but I’m glad she did. White Mountain has so many excellent collage puzzles and many of them are on my wish list.
Candied Apples and Candy Corn by Jane Wooster Scott – Ceaco – 584 pieces
This is not your normal Ceaco puzzle, the pieces were backed with thick cork board and there were a lot of whimsies – there were balloons, a dog, a train, birds, even a clown! SO MUCH FUN! As an added bonus there are 42 pieces of the puzzle that you can assemble separately to make a juggling clown. I didn’t do that part, but what a cool idea!
The puzzle was only 584 pieces, but they were quite large – almost too big for my whiteboard which I used at the time for regular 1000 piece puzzles (20″ x 27″). It wasn’t an easy puzzle by any means, the two trees at the top took me an hour 😮 It’s more challenging with the random cut of the pieces and whimsies, but I enjoyed every moment and love, love, LOVE THIS PUZZLE!
I used to tell my mom to stop buying puzzles at thrift stores because we have so many, and she’s always buying more. Not anymore. If it makes her happy she should go for it, I should keep my mouth shut – not to mention she sometimes finds amazing puzzles like this one. Best thrift store find of the year! (I checked online to find a price, and found one new for sale at a retail store for $124.00!)
I love collages, and I love having lots of words to put together – perfect puzzle for me! This is a Re-marks puzzle, which has pieces somewhat thinner than Ravensburger, but they are sturdy pieces with very nice image detail. They have a somewhat shiny finish which can cause some glare as you can see in the lower left corner, but the pieces fit together very well. This was a nice easy puzzle to work on after finishing Snow White.
Cinderella is now sorted and I hope to be able to start working on it tomorrow evening!
Insights by Colin Thompson – Schmidt Puzzles – 1000 pieces
I think this was the most enjoyable Colin Thompson puzzle image I have done. It went very quickly as each little box led to another little box to assemble. I love his cupboard series from Ravensburger, but this image was much less busy than those puzzles. The Schmidt quality is very good and the pieces feel sturdy and smooth in your hand. I’m actually kind of sad this puzzle is already finished! It was so fun to put together 🙂
Success! I have finished one section of this enormous puzzle and I am soooo proud of myself! I can’t sit and work for hours, so there were a lot of 5 and 10 minute increments where I was able to work. From reading posts and group discussions online I have seen that most people keep track of their actual time (hours) spent working on these large piece count puzzles, but that seems more difficult/tedious in my case. So I’m just keeping track of days. Started on September 28 and finished today, October 17. Twenty days. That’s actually better than I anticipated. 4032 pieces, the largest I have ever done 🙂
It’s small, but I’ve put a tape measure across the bottom of the picture above so you can see the size of it; 54 inches wide and about 38 inches tall. I took another picture with the tape measure along the side and a few things on top to give you even more scale – my husband’s longest golf club (driver) and an iPhone. It looks like a regular sized puzzle in the pictures so I wanted to show just how big it actually is.
My hubby’s driver, and an iPhone in the lower right corner – this is no small puzzle!
It was not an easy puzzle, but I enjoyed the challenge and it wasn’t so difficult as to be frustrating or tedious. The twinklies at the end were the most formidable, but once I got going I became more comfortable with the colors I was working with and each piece became easier to find. There were shapes repeated, especially along the edges, where paying close attention was a must. The pieces fit perfectly but the shading or something wasn’t exactly right. There were several times where I thought a piece was placed properly only to find that it wasn’t when adjacent pieces were added. It seemed in the interior of the puzzle that these happened only in 2’s. Perhaps each piece is repeated only once? It did not, however, diminish my enjoyment of the puzzle, and only added to my sense of pride and accomplishment once all the pieces were placed in their proper positions!
I’m giving myself a few days break, and may work a couple of normal sized puzzles in the meantime. I’m currently working on a 1000 piece Schmidt puzzle by Colin Thompson that I’m enjoying very much, and have a couple of 500 piece Dowdle puzzles to choose from as well. A little 500 piece puzzle might just be the palate cleanser I need before starting another section.
After consulting with my Puzzle Posse *mom and husband* ;), we have decided that the next section to be worked will be Fantasia. I want to get the most difficult sections done earlier on so I’m going to be alternating between the easier sections and the difficult ones. Fantasia, Cinderella and Peter Pan seem to me to be the most challenging, so they are the ones to be completed earlier in this process. Then nearer the end I won’t have to dread doing the more demanding sections because they will have been completed months ago!
I will probably start sorting Fantasia tomorrow and it may take a day or two to sort through them. Perhaps that will be a long enough break, perhaps not. We’ll have to wait and see how I feel, and whether or not I get antsy to get back to work. Of course, I can’t start work on the new section until we get the first one off the board, onto the big piece of cardboard and then figure out where we’re going to store it. Yikes. I need a bigger house!
