The Ballet Class

On February 8, 2018February 8, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Very cute Ravensburger that we were hoping was complete, unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. Still Mom and I enjoyed ourselves assembling it, and isn’t that what counts the most?

I love working Ravensburger puzzles, they’re my favorite manufacturer. Their puzzles are excellent quality all around and are the best to work with in my opinion. And if I ever have a problem with one of their puzzles they have always made it right immediately with excellent customer service. The pieces are thick and feel good in your hand, there are always a nice variety of shapes to work with, the image reproduction is excellent, and they fit together very well. They’re the best in the biz!

Even with this puzzle being over 34 years old, it is still in excellent shape. I could tell by the condition of the box that it was a well loved puzzle, but I was pleased that the pieces themselves were still holding up wonderfully. If only all the pieces were there – bummer.

Still, it won’t deter us from continuing to shop at the thrift stores, there are too many fabulous puzzles there at such good prices. If you want to stop my mom from shopping the thrift stores you’re going to have to wrestle her car keys from her – good luck with that! 🙂

The Color of Love

On January 19, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

For some stupid reason I thought this one was going to be as easy and as fun as Pencil Pushers. I am such an idiot; this was not nearly as fun. I even toyed with giving up on it once or twice. It was much more difficult, and I knew early on there were missing pieces, which always bums me out a little bit. It’s a cool picture, I just went into it with an unrealistic expectation of how it easy and fun it would be.

The quality was MasterPiece’s usual. Good thickness, interesting shapes, good fit. I started with the scribbled heart in the middle, and knew pretty quickly that there were at least 2 missing pieces – little did I know it would turn in to 11 missing pieces! Why on earth would someone donate a puzzle with this many pieces missing? It makes no sense to me. It’s a chance we take when we buy used from the thrift stores, but it’s still a let down when there are this many pieces missing.

There were colors in multiple places, so it wasn’t as easy as Pencil Pushers with just one pencil of each color. It was easy enough to separate out the different colors, but not as easy to assemble them all in their respective places. It took more time than I planned on, but it was still a fun assembly.

Luckily as I was nearing the end my daughter came over for a visit, she helped me finish it, which made it more enjoyable for me. I enjoy my “alone” puzzle time to decompress and relax, but it’s fun to share a puzzle and time spent together too. ❤

Mountain Vigil

On January 15, 2018January 15, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

My black belt thrift store shopper knows what I like, and bought this puzzle just for me, because for some odd reason I love puzzles with quilts. I don’t know why I like them so much, that’s just how it is. This was such an interesting quilt puzzle, I had the best time assembling it! Unfortunately it was missing 2 pieces, bummer. 😐

This puzzle was mostly the normal Sunsout quality – good thickness, variety of piece shapes, nice image reproduction. But it was also interesting in that it was grid cut instead of random, and the fit was much less tight than normal – I enjoyed both of these things. Normally I find the fit of the “regular” rectangular Sunsout puzzles a bit too tight but the fit of this puzzle was just about perfect. Also, most Sunsout puzzles I’ve done have been randomly cut but this was grid (ribbon) cut; I don’t know if I’ve ever done a grid cut Sunsout puzzle. I like both random or grid cut puzzles – I swing both ways. 😉

The artist, Rebecca Barker, likes quilts too as all of her puzzles are “quiltscapes”; with a quilt at the forefront and a secondary scene it blends into in the background. They’re so interesting and colorful, I love them and hope to find more. This one was a joy to assemble and even easier than I thought it would be, especially the background scene of the proud stag and his family. Just beautiful!

This puzzle is out of print, but if you find one I definitely recommend it. It was fun and interesting from beginning to end. 👍

Bright Eyes

On December 29, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Here’s an interesting puzzle from the mid 70’s, by a manufacturer that is no longer in business. From what I’ve been able to find, Built Rite puzzles were produced from the 1940’s to 1976. It’s a guess, but this looks like something from the 70’s to me. It’s so fun to try puzzles from companies we’ve never heard of!

The quality of this puzzle was fair, the pieces didn’t fit together well, and the fit was very loose. Not sure if I can blame that on the manufacturer, as this was a pre-loved puzzle from the thrift store. As you can see in the picture the tabs on the pieces aren’t rounded they are more geometric, which was interesting. The pieces themselves were a good thickness with an interesting variety of piece shapes, and the image reproduction was good with some blurriness.

This little girl is so cute I couldn’t wait to assemble it. This is another puzzle mom and I worked on together, and we had a very good time. Although the wallpaper and the little girl’s hair was a little bit of a challenge, and that is some BIG hair! It was a fun assembly; I always enjoy spending time with mom and working puzzles together. And every time I look at this picture I say “She’s so cute!” ❤

Moulin Rouge

On December 21, 2017December 22, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was an interesting thrift store purchase that mom and I assembled together. It looked more fun than it was; for me, anyway. I chose this one to assemble, but it didn’t meet my expectations for some reason. I’m not sure I can articulate why this was, I just know that it was.

The random cut was very interesting and kept us on our toes, and the pieces fit together well. The piece shape is very obvious in the finished puzzle, which isn’t ideal but doesn’t really affect the actual assembly. It does make it more difficult to make out some of the words though.

I’m not usually so “blah” about a puzzle, it’s mostly yay or nay; either really loved it or didn’t like it. I have no idea what I was expecting, but whatever it was didn’t materialize. For the most part this one just makes me shrug my shoulders. Eh. The quality was good, it just lacked something for me. If I’m going on quality I would recommend this puzzle, if the image is something you like go for it. 🙂