Final Assembly Day!

On June 18, 2017April 21, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, World's Largest Puzzle Progress27 Comments

The World’s Largest Jigsaw Puzzle is finally put together! It was amazing to see the entire puzzle assembled, all 10 sections completed and connected. WOW! You can know the measurements in your head, but then seeing it in person is another thing altogether. It’s a beautiful puzzle, and it fit together perfectly; it was stunning in it’s enormity – I can hardly believe I did all that!

This is myself, mom, and my 3 children. Not the best picture, but at least it gives you scale, that’s one enormous puzzle! When you look back at the pictures I took along the way, the every day updates, each section looks like your average size puzzle, nothing too extraordinary. This picture gives you a much better appreciation for just how large each section actually is!

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So everyone there who was taking pictures was supposed to send them to me too, so I could pick the best ones for the blog. Of course no one has so far, so unfortunately the pictures I have aren’t the best ones from the day. The one above is a good one taken by a friend of my parents (although I’m unclear why my oldest son is crouched like a frog – he’s just got to be himself I guess!)

My husband arranged for a professional photographer to come and take pics of the puzzle, so I’m hoping when I get those they’ll be awesome pictures to share. 😎 We left the puzzle at the church Saturday night, and are going back to get more pictures today and to package it back up into it’s 10 sections. Hopefully in a day or so everyone will have forwarded me all the pictures and I can pick the best ones to show.

I was so nervous and anxious all morning! I can’t explain exactly why, but I was worried that a section would fall apart or something would go wrong. (I’m a worrier – an almost Olympic level, award winning worrier) But everything went smoothly thank goodness! It’s hard to believe that this puzzle took up 6 months of my life! 😮

I have to say I’m pretty darn proud of myself! This is quite the accomplishment, and not a lot of people can say they’ve actually assembled the world’s largest commercially available jigsaw puzzle! I can – I did it!!

Again, tons of thanks to my dad and husband for doing all the heavy lifting and carting things around for the big day. And to mom for helping me make cookies and refreshments for everyone who came out to see the puzzle; to my 3 wonderful kids for showing up for mom’s weird puzzle day and being good sports about it. Thanks also to everyone who showed up to share my accomplishment today, it meant so much to me!

I’m hoping to have more pictures of the completed puzzle in the next few days to share with everyone, but at the very least I wanted to get a few of them in today’s post – because I promised I would.

I’m wiped out! Exhaustion has set in, I overdid it getting all of this set up and accomplished and will definitely be paying for it for the next few days – but it was worth it! This is not something that happens every day, so I wanted to enjoy it, and I did. I completed the Guinness World Record Largest Jigsaw Puzzle! I’m proud of myself, grateful to all my family and friends for their help, support, and encouragement; and thankful that I have this blog where I can share my puzzles with you.

I may be posting lots more pictures of the puzzle in the next few days, bear with me. I’m a proud momma who wants to show off her adorable overly large baby to everyone! 😉

One week to go!

On June 10, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, World's Largest Puzzle ProgressLeave a comment

One week from today we’re assembling Disney’s Memorable Moments! Friends and family have been invited, hall has been reserved, and I’m super excited! 🙂

I’m really excited to see every section put together and although in my head I know the measurements of the finished puzzle, it will be a different thing altogether to see it firsthand. Each section as it was completed seemed like an enormous puzzle on it’s own, and connecting them will be quite an awesome sight. 😮

I’m hoping to have an excellent picture that I’ll be able to put on the home page of the blog to replace the advertising image. Honestly though, how in the world do you get a good picture of a puzzle that’s 23 feet long and lying on the floor? I’m thinking we’re probably going to have to take a ladder. A camera rigged drone? (That made me laugh just thinking about it) Hopefully there’s a picture that turns out good enough to use here. I want a picture of myself lying or sitting on top of the puzzle, luckily the puzzle is so big the camera will have to be far enough away that it won’t be too close to my face. 😉

So if you’ve kept up with my blog and watched my progress on the “World’s Largest Jigsaw Puzzle”, it’s finally going to be completely assembled on Saturday June 17, 2017! Most likely I’ll post an update and pictures on Sunday, so stay tuned. 😎

The Pet Parlour

On June 4, 2017June 4, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Pamela runs The Pampered Pooch Parlour, but she dreams of diversifying and branching out to bigger and better things. What If her dream became reality, would things go wild? What would her shop look like then? This is what you have to puzzle in Ravensburger’s What If #6 The Pet Parlour.

If you read this blog regularly you know I love Ravensburger puzzles and that their quality is excellent. This puzzle is no different. It’s nice after working other puzzles to start a puzzle you know is going to be good and whose quality you don’t have to worry about – it’s like coming home. It makes me happy. And yes, I know, I need to get out more. 😐

This puzzle looked like fun to me, and it was even more fun than I thought it would be! I really enjoyed it very much, and of all the What If puzzles I’ve done so far (1-6) I would say this one is definitely my favorite! The concept is funny, the artwork is exceptional and it makes for a wonderful puzzle. If you’re not sure about the What If concept and you want to try it out, start with #6 – it’s tons of fun. 🙂

The Village Hall

On May 22, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I was in the mood for a Ravensburger puzzle, and this one looked like fun – it was! Again, I don’t take a picture of the entire puzzle because I don’t want to ruin the fun for anyone. So much of the enjoyment I get from puzzles like this is working out what’s going on and who goes where. I don’t want to spoil someone else’s fun!

In this puzzle, the caretaker at Grimley Hall is certain his new booking system is foolproof. But what if he didn’t take enough care and what if the Hall were double booked, or worse? As usual the result is comical and makes for a great puzzle.

Sometimes I’m just in the mood for a puzzle with quality I know will be excellent and I can just chill out and have fun with the assembly. Ravensburger is always available for that! This puzzle was no different and it was nice to sit down and get lost in the puzzle and tune out the world, even if only for a few minutes at a time. The pieces just feel good in your hand and you can put your mind in puzzle gear and not think about anything else.

As usual the art of Geoff Tristam is excellent and funny with bright colors and clean lines, and humor that I love. Also if you’re not familiar with the What If puzzles, on the back of each box is a blurb about the artist and he’s dressed up for a picture relating to the puzzle. On the back of this box he’s dressed up like the caretaker and he even has a ledger for bookings! I adore cartoon puzzles, and Geoff Tristam’s artwork is some of the best. 🙂

I highly recommend trying the What If puzzles. The quality is exceptional, the artwork is excellent and it’s wonderful exercise for your brain.

Soon!

On May 16, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

As of yesterday we have a date set, the hall is reserved and I will FINALLY be able to assemble the entire 40,320 piece puzzle! I’m very excited, and even though it’s another month I have to wait I know that the date is coming up and it’s definitely going to be completely assembled. 😎

I had to make sure all the people I wanted to invite were able to come, and that’s why the date is so far away. It seems far away at the moment, but I know in the grand scheme of things it really isn’t. It took a little over 6 months to complete, so waiting another 4 weeks isn’t that much of an inconvenience (it just seems like one!)

I’m so looking forward to seeing the entire puzzle, I have a feeling it will be extremely overwhelming when all the sections are assembled and I can visualize my accomplishment. 😮

So, if you’ve been waiting to see me with the completed puzzle it won’t be too much longer that you have to wait. I promise I will let someone take my picture and I will definitely be posting pictures of the final assembly and the completed puzzle!