Tag: Missing Pieces

Christmas Spirit

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Christmas Spirit by Susan Winget – Ceaco – 577 pieces

This special edition Ceaco was quite a difficult puzzle to assemble, but I’m glad that I finally put it together. Mom bought this at the thrift store at least 5 years ago, and paid a whole 99 cents for it! I can’t say it was overly enjoyable, but it wasn’t too bad either.

Ceaco came out with a few puzzles backed in velvet many years ago, and this is the second one mom found at a thrift store. They’re interesting to work with…

Beautiful to look at isn’t it? Not so much fun to assemble on a fabric covered board though; the velvet grabs onto the fabric and sliding sections around is almost impossible. The irregular border meant that I didn’t start there, I started with the words in the middle. When you don’t start with the border all you can do is “guesstimate” where everything goes, and it’s never perfect; there’s always adjusting and wiggling pieces around to get things exactly where they belong. Once the pieces were laid down they didn’t want to let go of my beautiful fabric board; and because there are whimsy pieces in the puzzle, lifting a completed section to move it meant pieces falling out. Frustrating. Annoying. So, because the border wasn’t put together first, things had to be moved around to fit together properly – and the damn velvet made it so difficult!

The pieces are thicker than a regular Ceaco puzzle, and the velvet adds even more thickness. Otherwise the quality is only fair/good. Many of the pieces were bent and had image lifting off, the fit was very tight, and the finish is shiny. It’s a beautiful image, but working with this puzzle had me to ready to say NO MORE CHRISTMAS PUZZLES!

There were quite a few whimsy pieces as well as these letters, but so many of them were two pieces that weren’t easy to find on the initial sort – that means I didn’t take a picture of anything other than this.

I wish I’d enjoyed this more, but I just didn’t. 🤷‍♀️

If you find one at a thrift store, or somewhere out in the world – give it a try. Hopefully you’ll like it more than I did.

Glorious Morning

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles10 Comments

Glorious Morning by Jane Maday – E&L Corp. – 250 pieces

This beautiful image is unfortunately attached to a puzzle of very poor quality – but I enjoyed assembling it anyways. Things don’t always have to be perfect; in fact, if they were things would get boring pretty quickly.

It’s been a while since I’ve done an E&L puzzle, and the quality of this one reminded me why that was. Thin pieces, sloppy fit, and shiny finish – these are puzzles I usually pass right on by. It was a thrift store puzzle given to me by a friend though, which is why I wanted to assemble it.

It was such a small puzzle (14 x 10 inches) that I just put all the pieces on the board. I tried to just put them wherever, but the OCD kicked in and I ended up laying them out neatly in rows – couldn’t help myself! 🤷‍♀️

I started with the four birds and then started filling in the birdhouses and flowers. It wasn’t an easy puzzle, but was still fun. The missing piece was a little disappointing, but it’s par for the course sometimes. Thrift store puzzles come with a bit of risk, but usually the ones I find are complete. When they’re not, it isn’t too much of a problem; the task is to put together all the pieces you have, and I completed my task.

I’ve done quite a few puzzles with artwork by Jane Maday; they’re usually outdoors with birds and flowers and they’re always entertaining to put together. Despite the quality issues it was still fun – in fact I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. 🐦❤

Stephen King Books

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Stephen King Books (?) – Unknown Brand – 1000 pieces

This puzzle from an unknown brand had terrible quality, but the collage image was still entertaining to put together. Entertaining or not though, it isn’t one that I would recommend – I just couldn’t get past the thin pieces and terrible fit and the frustration of trying to move pieces around that crumble and fall apart like they weren’t even connected.

Although I searched every inch of the box, I could find no brand name at all. It says “Jigsaw Puzzle” and “1000 pieces” and there is a grid that has letters in it but that seems to be showing that this puzzle is lettered on the back to help with sorting and assembly. There’s no title for the puzzle either, so I just went with the obvious. This seems to be a quickly made puzzle to take advantage of the increased demand during the pandemic.

The pieces are unbelievably thin, and the fit was quite loose. The image reproduction was slightly blurry in some places and the finish was quite shiny. All the pieces were ballerinas (2 prong, 2 hole) in two different shapes – one thinner that was assembled vertically, and one thicker that was placed horizontally. There was also an extra piece, and one missing; usually both problems in one puzzle are from pieces sticking in the die that is used to cut the shapes. The nicest thing I have to report about this puzzle is that it lies flat, that’s the extent of this puzzle’s virtues.

You can see in the first picture both the extra piece, and how incredibly thin the pieces of this puzzle are. The second picture is showing the first section to be assembled. I used the letters on the back to both sort and assemble this puzzle. Normally I don’t do that, but there are so many words repeated (Stephen King, obviously) and so much darkness in the image that with the frustration of the pieces and how they fit together I don’t think I would have put this puzzle together any other way.

Carrie is the only Stephen King book I’ve ever read, and to be honest I really didn’t care for it. I was a teenager at the time, perhaps that was part of it, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I do love the look of this book cover though. 😲

Richard Bachman is one of several nom de plumes (pen names) that Stephen King has used, so this is also a Stephen King novel. I’ve never heard of this book, but this seemed like the perfect picture to take for a puzzle posted near Halloween. Bloody and creepy!

I’ve learned in the past couple of years that if there is no brand name on a puzzle box that it is not worth my time. Just this week I was given a wooden puzzle for my birthday with no brand name on the box, and it was AWFUL. If the makers aren’t willing to tell you the brand name (or if there really isn’t a brand at all), it’s a hastily made puzzle without regard for quality, or your enjoyment of the assembly.

Real companies that put their name on a puzzle box are proud of their product, even if we aren’t always happy with their quality; those that don’t just aren’t worth it in my opinion. I’d rather have a Ceaco than a crap puzzle without a name.

Yep. I just said that.

American Girl – Molly

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

American Girl – Molly – Mattel – 150 pieces

This set of three puzzles was quick and entertaining to assemble, but unfortunately one of them was missing a piece. That’s the chance you take when you purchase thrift store puzzles, but honestly I would say somewhere around 97% of all my pre-loved puzzles are complete. When there is a missing piece or two it isn’t too much of an issue for me; I still got a great deal for my money.

There were two American Girl puzzle sets at the thrift store, and this is the second set that I’ve assembled. The first one, Josefina, was put together in March of last year. That one was complete, and honestly was a little bit better in the quality department than this one.

The fit was much looser with this set, which made the assembly a bit frustrating. The finish is extremely shiny which is a problem under artificial lights, but the image reproduction was otherwise quite good. There were a nice variety of piece shapes, and the chipboard is thin but sturdy.

This was my favorite of the three images, and I wanted to put it into the frame, but the looseness of the fit caused it to crumble when I tried to put it in the tray. I was too frustrated to re-assemble it just for another picture. Sorry…sort of.

Normally the image with a dog would be the one I’m drawn to, but for some reason I cannot verbalize this was my least favorite of the three.

A missing piece. A bit of a disappointment, but I finished the puzzle by putting together all the pieces I had – so mission complete!

The set of three puzzles comes with one frame, so it seems that you display whichever one you like best, or you can rotate the puzzles.

If you’re lucky enough to find one of these sets at a thrift store or online and you’ve got a youngster who enjoys the American Girl dolls and books, they would be a nice gift. The quality is fair/good. It was nice to give them a try, and I enjoyed them very much.

Beethoven

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Beethoven (Peanuts) – Ceaco – 100 pieces

This cute little puzzle was at the cabin, and you know I can’t resist a kids puzzle (even if it is a Ceaco). Unfortunately one of the pieces had obviously escaped, and it’s in a pretty obvious place too; poor Snoopy is missing a section of his doghouse. Nevertheless, we had fun putting it together – and hubby helped with this one too!

You can tell by the picture above that this puzzle has been well loved; there are several pieces with the image lifting up from the tabs, and a few places where it doesn’t lay completely flat. But I can’t blame Ceaco for those things, this puzzle has been assembled more than a few times – by children. Kids aren’t always as gentle as we might want them to be with their toys. So, all of that is to say that the quality of this puzzle was actually pretty good, it seems to have held up well to repeated assemblies and disassemblies.

It didn’t take long with three adults working together, but it was still quite enjoyable. Sometimes working on a puzzle made for children makes you feel as if you’re really good at puzzles. Look how fast we got that done, we are FANTASTIC at putting together jigsaw puzzles! 😎

Plus, I spent the weekend explaining to everyone that part of the reason puzzles are so enjoyable is because you get that little hit of dopamine when you find the piece you’re looking for or make a connection. Your brain is sending you chemicals that make you feel good, and who wouldn’t want that? Puzzles are amazing!

We all got our little ego/dopamine boost when we finished this – and then we must have spent 45 minutes to an hour looking through all the other puzzles at the cabin for the missing piece.

Wherever he is, he chose his hiding place very well. 🔎🧩