Love To Sew

On June 20, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another missing piece puzzle, but it was still fun to do! I was hoping all the pieces would be in this one because mom likes and collects buttons. I was wanting to glue and frame this one for her, but I guess I’ll just have to wait till we find another one that’s worthy.

I was surprised at the pieces of this puzzle, my previous experiences with Andrews + Blaine puzzles was that all the pieces were ballerinas, which doesn’t always make for the most fun assembly. But the previous puzzles worked were 1000 pieces and this one was 550. There were a very nice variety of piece shapes in this 550 piece, and they were slightly oversized which made for a nice large finished puzzle. They fit together quite well and the piece shape isn’t overly obvious in the finished image. The image reproduction seemed a bit fuzzy on this one, not as crisp and clean as I’ve seen with other A + B puzzles. Perhaps it was in the photograph itself, but it did seem a bit blurred in places.

I did this one over several days as I was having a tough time with sitting and standing, and it took me much longer than a 550 piece would normally take – partly because it was a bit challenging and partly because I wasn’t able to work on it as much as I would have liked. Then my daughter came to visit one day near the end and finished it up while I was on a phone call. I turned around and it was done!

This was a fun assembly that was about moderate difficulty and it looks great finished except for that darned missing piece. I enjoy the Andrews + Blaine puzzles, but for me with this brand the image is everything – especially when there is a 1000 piece puzzle and all the pieces are the same shape. You’ve got to have an image that doesn’t have a lot of sameness, with plenty of color changes/shades and textures to help find pieces. 😉

Disney Princesses

On June 15, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another puzzle with missing pieces unfortunately. In addition, someone managed to spill ink onto some of the pieces – ouch.

I’m not sure if this puzzle was a favorite and assembled more often than the others, or if the quality was lacking. The pieces fit together well enough, but in addition to being quite thin there were several pieces with the image lifting up as you can see above. The colors were more muted than most of the other puzzles in this collection, but still pretty. I can’t definitively say that quality is the reason for the image lift, as I didn’t see that problem with any of the other puzzles in this box. I try to err on the side of positivity if I’m not sure, and so I’ll say that most likely this was the puzzle most loved and assembled which accounts for the extra wear and tear.

The assembly was quick and easy, in fact I assembled all 3 of the 150 piece puzzles in the same day. They were small enough to assemble on a cookie sheet and I was able to be in bed resting but still get some puzzling done! 🙂

Mom and I had to travel to a doctor’s appointment this week, and were discussing movies we would have liked to see in the Memorable Moments puzzle. Doing this princesses puzzle made me wonder what criteria was used to decide which movies to include – I think Sleeping Beauty would have made a gorgeous section! And mom and I both agreed that The Aristocats would have been great too – we both loved the movie and it had such wonderful songs and music (important criteria in our family), and those adorable kittens would have made for a delightful section as well. But there have been so many great Disney movies, I don’t think you’d ever make everyone happy with your choices unless every single Disney movie was included – how big would that puzzle be? 😮

This puzzle won’t be going to my grandson’s house since it’s missing pieces and damaged, but it’s Disney week and I wanted to add it to the blog because two of these princesses are in the giant Disney puzzle. Poor Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) was left out, but at least she made it here to My Jigsaw Journal. 😎

Finding Nemo

On June 14, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Next puzzle for Disney week, unfortunately this one is missing 3 pieces. Still, it was a fun assembly and a bit of a challenge too!

Mega Puzzles are thin compared to the more premium brands like Ravensburger, Jumbo, or Pomegranate; but it doesn’t always have to be about only working with premium puzzles. Sometimes a cool thrift store find with thin pieces but a great image is just what I’m looking for; sometimes I just want to work a fun puzzle with an image that I really enjoy regardless of the quality of the pieces.

Mega Puzzles does have a nice variety of piece shapes and the pieces fit together quite well as you can see, but they were thin. This image was a little challenging with all the ocean dwellers everywhere and a lot of water, but still fun! The image reproduction was nice and there was no image lift even when a piece was placed incorrectly.

This movie wasn’t one of the movies included in the Disney Memorable Moments puzzle, but I do have good memories of watching it with my kids. Disney movies were a big part of my childhood; I enjoyed sharing those same movies with my kids and experiencing the newer movies with them as well. My husband still quote the seagulls from Nemo and says “Mine?” over and over when he wants to make me laugh – it usually works. 🙂

Biking

On May 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another one bites the dust. I was hoping that this puzzle was all there, because I knew my grandson would love it – he loves Mickey Mouse. Bummer!

This is one of the better Mega Puzzles we’ve found. The pieces were quite sturdy, the image is bright and colorful, and they fit together very well.

Oh well, he’s got plenty of other puzzles to work on, and there are still a bunch of them in my car to be delivered if I ever feel well enough to go visit. Unfortunately this was a no go, I don’t want to give him a puzzle with missing pieces. 😦

Jungle Colors

On May 19, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This puzzle looked so cool that mom bought it from the thrift store knowing the quality wouldn’t be amazing. It is a stunning image and made for a challenging assembly at times, but we enjoyed it which is what matters most.

Alas, as sometimes happens with thrift store puzzles, a piece was missing. Bummer, but it was still a fun assembly even with the sameness of the pieces (they were all ballerinas) 😐 Oh well, a good time was had by all!

I’d love to find more puzzles with images from this artist. The colors she chooses are gorgeous and the fact that everything is outlined in white made for an extremely interesting assembly. They’re striking and would be good glued and framed as art, at least I think so.