A Repeat Puzzle

 

This is my next puzzle - The James Younger Gang offered by SunsOut Puzzles.  This is the only puzzle I kept from my previous puzzle life decades ago. It has survived many multiple downsize purgings of my belongings.   I love the picture.  I tried to find this puzzle on Amazon and it doesn’t appear to be for sale anymore. 

The first step facing me is the pieces sorting.  I typically sort by color and edge pieces first.

I first noticed these pieces are non-traditional in shape.

And the sizes of the pieces vary greatly.

And I have a box full of those oddly shaped and oddly sized pieces.  

Not sure if this will be easy or hard.  

But the sorting step is completed now - and I am committed.  

After all, how hard can it be since I have assembled this puzzle before?  (famous last words)  

There are an awful lot of solid color pieces to this puzzle - so my normal brain process of checking the pieces against the picture for general location on the board won’t work for large sections of this puzzle.  

In fact, I have specifically avoided puzzles that are a single color because I prefer using the picture side for reference as opposed to looking for specific shapes. 

This puzzle will be completed, however, no matter how hard it is because I have plans for it.

Now that I have a dedicated puzzle space, I will glue this puzzle together, frame it and and hang it above my puzzle board.  

This puzzle also will probably be the only puzzle I ever repeat. A kind of a “first” and “last” rolled into one. 

This should be interesting!

My Winter Puzzle

My current puzzle is a Christmas scene.  It is called Christmas Cheer by the Vermont Christmas Company.  I haven’t done enough puzzles to develop a favored company.

I didn’t have as much time before Christmas to work on this puzzle as I hoped and here I am after Christmas - actually mid-January - working on a Christmas theme.  I considered stopping the work and putting it away for next year, but knowing me, I might not want to do this same puzzle again.  

I love having a dedicated space that I don’t
need to change out for other use.

Of course, today a snow storm is predicted and this puzzle is full of snow ... so now it is my Winter Puzzle.  It probably is best I finish it this year and then re-home it.  I seldom re-read books and creating jigsaw puzzles are the same. I seldom repeat a puzzle.  I have glued a number of puzzles together that were of interest to my Grand daughter and she has them hanging in her play room.

This puzzle is quite large.  As I typically do, I began with the border pieces.  Then I usually pick items within the puzzle to put together - items that are easy to find in the mix of puzzle pieces - which in the beginning is a lot to paw through. 

This time I focused on the Christmas trees.  That was a mistake.  Finding the pieces was not hard, but getting them put together was harder than I thought.  I started focusing on the people in the picture.  That went faster. And then the buildings.  

And with time, some of the Christmas trees began to take shape.  

This last tree is still a struggle.

The cost of puzzles climbed during the pandemic, mostly because people were so interested in doing home activities and puzzle companies had trouble keeping up with the demand.   In 2020 when I rediscovered the joy of putting puzzles together I went on a binge of puzzle purchases.  I sort of went puzzle crazy.  Beyond this puzzle I have 24 puzzles waiting for me to assemble.  Some were cheap - a few were expensive.  A few were gifts. Now, that puzzles are widely available again, I realize that I wouldn't spend more than $20 for one.  The time and enjoyment I get from them is well worth the $20 or less spent.  But some puzzles go for upwards of $30 or $40 dollars.  Since I don’t repeat many, that cost would be too pricy for one completion only.  I am a little loathed to buy puzzles second hand.  I would hate to find a piece missing.  But if the picture was compelling enough, I might risk it.

I have heard the opinion that doing a jigsaw puzzle is not a productive use of time - especially if it is dismantled after it is completed.  I guess I can understand that opinion on one level, but I also believe that not all activities need to be productive.  Relaxation is also an important state for both mind and body.  The path to relaxation is different for everyone.  Based on recent events - completing jigsaw puzzles is a pretty popular method of relaxation.

Do you do jigsaw puzzles?

  Do you have a preferred vendor?

  What is the range of cost that you find reasonable?

  What is your experience with previously owned puzzles?

One last picture - update as of Wednesday night!  The trees are finally complete (and they weren’t fun to do) as well as much of the bottom.  Hoping the sky isn’t as hard as it looks.  😀

 

 

Puzzles - Winter Themes and Current Challenge

Seems my puzzle completions have gotten ahead of my blogging!

I finished this winter puzzle called After The Snow Has Fallen by artist Joseph Holodook purchased through Bits and Pieces. The theme of snow matches what I see outside my window right now.  SNOW! It was fun and not very hard.  Maybe a week to complete.  I do enjoy these simpler art pieces where the colors and the lines are pretty well delineated without out much guessing involved as to where they should go.

The second puzzle I finished is another wintery scene called Home Again, artist H. Hargrove and purchased through Bits and Pieces as well. This one was little harder due to the blending of colors but even so ... not hard.

Left side of the puzzle.

Right side of the puzzle.

This puzzle, however, had a tricky element to it.  Pictured below on the left is a bush that appears to have need of more bush pieces to complete the image.  There were no more bush pieces!  I got out my magnifier to see if the pieces I put into place really look like they belonged.  They did, line, color and shape.  But obviously not right because I had no free bush pieces left to place.  (Images below) Then I started mixing up the arrangement of the pieces based on shape alone ... and the picture on the right shows the finished bush.  What I have noticed with the Bits and Pieces puzzles is that the way they cut the pieces sometimes results in incorrect placement - even if the shape and picture seem to match.  Not sure if that is common across other puzzle brands or not, but it has soured me a bit on Bits and Pieces puzzles.  

I have a few more to complete but will be interested in seeing if this if this is true with other brands.

Currently I am working on a Disney puzzle called Tangled which is the Disney version of the story of Rapunzel.  I plan to glue the pieces together, frame and give to my grand daughter for her play room.

This 500 piece puzzle is only 14” x 18” and the pieces are measurably smaller that the other 500 piece puzzles I did which ran 18” x 24”.  The pieces show small bits of blended colors and is making this much more of a challenge.  But the picture is beautiful.  

Tangled is part of a 4 puzzle set - all 500 pieces and all 14” x 18” and all painted by Thomas Kinkade Studios. The other 3 puzzle themes are Lady and the Tramp, Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice from Fantasia, and Winnie the Poo.  I suspect they all will be somewhat challenging because they are all done by the same artist in the same size pieces.

Another Puzzle - Early Stages

Felt a little lost not having a puzzle in the works this morning. 

So I started another one.  

The next puzzle up is a little more seasonal!  

This one is called - After The Snow Has Fallen from Bits and Pieces (link), artist Joseph Holodook.  It looks like fun.

  This puzzle is only 500 pieces - like the first one I did - which was also from Bits and Pieces.  

The initial dump of pieces is like looking at a pile of building blocks for me.  The first thing I noticed was the size of the pieces are larger!  My first impression after a month of smaller pieces is - this is a puzzle for kids!  Ha! (the box says 14+ years of age.)

The photo above shows 6 pieces from two puzzles to the demonstrate the difference.

  The Macabre Mansion puzzle are the brown smaller pieces.  

The 6 blue pieces above are from the snow scene.

  Big difference.  

The snow scene has a far less detailed picture as well.  Guessing this 500 piece puzzle will be easier.

First step - sorting the pieces is done.  Next step is constructing the edge pieces.  

One of my regular visitors and readers, Michelle of Boulderneigh Blog (link), suggested trading puzzles with others who enjoy this pastime.  That idea has a lot merit - especially if you are not a “repeater” like me - someone who doesn’t typically get enjoyment out of doing the same puzzle again at some point. If there is any interest is something like that let me know.  It would be fun to organize a group interested in  sharing puzzles.  It would involved sending puzzles to others ... so trips to the post office, but a nice idea to work out.

In my shopping around on the net, I found most puzzles fall into the $10 to $25 dollar range in cost.  A reasonable expense for a month’s worth of enjoyment.  The Macabre Mansion puzzle was expensive as puzzles go - about $35 to $40.  I enjoyed doing the Mansion puzzle - even though it was pretty hard and it took about a month to do, but I don’t think I would do it again.  I purchased the Mansion puzzle off the artist's website (HollyCarden.com).  Probably more expensive because of that and I might try to avoid stuff over $25 since it seems I will be doing more of this until we are virus free.   I hear that Costco sells jigsaw puzzles which might also be a good source to find puzzles at a discount.  And Amazon as many options.  And there are thrift stores an dollar stores and even some box stores like Walmart and Target that are options - if it is ever safe again to visit those places.  Oh well, I have about 8 puzzles in my collection now and that should keep me going for awhile.

I love having a puzzle in the works.  In looking through various websites for puzzles I discovered that doing jigsaw puzzles right now is HUGELY POPULAR!  Sometimes a puzzle sells out before I even discover it.  It is just one of those things that makes passing the time at home (while socially distancing) bearable.  I can attest to the fact that it does eat up time, does fill a ’need’ that I can’t find the right word for, and it is relaxing (at least during times when I am not fretting that a pieces are 'certainly missing'.)  

I’ll spare you the progress stages going forward.  It was just fun to share those observations with you.

Edger Alan Poe - Macabre Mansion

 

This is the second puzzle I have attempted since returning to jigsaw puzzles as a past time and this one was a doozy.  Hard, hard, hard. 

It is called Macabre Mansion and each cut away room of the mansion represents one of the stories of Edger Alan Poe.  He wrote pretty dark stuff and that is why the house looks haunted.

Box Cover

I learned pretty early on that if I wanted to feel like I was making progress on this puzzle I needed to take pictures at various stages and compare.  It was too easy to imagine that a puzzle about dark stories might be “dark” itself - putting in pieces and never getting ahead.  And sometime it felt just like that.

November 29, 2020

I couldn’t help the feeling that I might have bit off more than I could chew with this puzzle.

After all, the first puzzle was only 500 pieces and it moved along consistently.  This puzzle I took many breaks from.  I would get 4 or 5 puzzle pieces in and then it would just dry up.  Nothing.  I would take a break and come back 5 or 6 hours later - and put another 2 or 3 pieces in - and again, it would dry up.

And so it went for days.

December 8, 2020

It was between December 8 and the 25th that I inspired myself to keep moving forward by playing a little mind game.  With each piece that I put in I reminded myself I didn’t need to sort through THAT piece again if it made it onto the puzzle board.

December 25, 2020

At Christmas I could really tell a difference.  Christmas, being what it was this year (quiet with no demands) I pushed forward wanting to finished before 2021.

December 30, 2020

I could see progress if I looked at the board, but finding the correct pieces didn’t get all that much easier.  I decided that the pictures were small and the pieces were small and the visual clues of the surrounding pictures didn’t seem to help all that much finding the missing piece.

January 1, 2021

Ok, so I didn’t complete it by the end of 2020!  But it is complete.

I can’t tell you how many times I decided that a piece was missing.  That I looked through all the remaining pieces and could not find the one I was looking for.  I would have bet money

pieces were missing.  Nothing was missing.  Glad I didn’t express that thought out loud.

In the last week of completion I found myself running my hands over the finished areas

enjoying the feeling of being so close to done.

A few close ups to show the complexity of the images.  

DONE!!

It stayed like that overnight and I enjoyed looking at it again over coffee this morning.

Now it is broken apart and into its box.  I did hold out the edge pieces and put them in a separate baggie just in case I repeat this puzzle again.

It is hard to know if I will repeat making any of the puzzles I have.  I don’t re-read books, or duplicated knitted items.  I am not much of a repeater.  But you never know.

A "Tool Lover" Shares

I have a lot of hobbies.  Knitter, sometimes weaver, crocheter, lego builder, Kindle reader, Audible reader and as of lately, jigsaw puzzler.  Hobby people know that the tools of a hobby often are as important as the action itself. I say all this to help introduce you to a new tool of mine.

And here it is - my new puzzle board!!

I know.  I know. 

 I can hear your thoughts.  

My . God . That . Thing . Looks . Big!!

I said the same thing when I saw the size of the box it came in and realized

.... ITS BIG!!

As you would expect, there is a story that goes with this new addition -  that stunned me at first, but won me over when I began to use it.

I previously blogged about the simple cloth puzzle saver roll.  Initially it worked pretty good - meaning the puzzle pieces stayed relatively in place and none were lost in this rolled state.

But as I began to complete more and more of the puzzle, there were problems.  More and more pieces to stabilize. Less and less stability as it grew in size.

Until finally I had 2/3s of the puzzle completed and it looked quite messy when I opened it up each time.

Many of the pieces had moved and a lot were ajar when I carefully unrolled the puzzle.  I would spend about 20 minutes getting everything back into place before doing what I really wanted to do ... adding new pieces.  Unsatisfactory.  It made me unhappy every time - and once or twice I chose not to work on the puzzle because I didn't want to spend time repairing my work.  

Obviously if I had a dedicated space where I could leave the puzzle out - no special board would be needed.  Now in this condo I don't have the floor space to set up a separate table somewhere and we use the kitchen table every single day so that could not be a permanent space either.  I needed another option.  I shopped around and fell in love with this tilt board option.  The transfer of the puzzle from the cloth to the board was time consuming.  This puzzle interlocks but not as firmly as some I have done.  Pieces came apart as I tried to lift them connected onto the board.  But finally it was transferred. I could tell as I did this part, the board assisted me with keeping pieces attached to the felting.  Nice!

This board was definitely not a cheap option, but it is a HUGE improvement in working on the puzzle!  Besides the fact it can hold larger puzzles up to 1500 pieces (this puzzle is 500 pieces), the surface felting grips the pieces in place even at an extreme tilt.  I love that it is made of beautiful New Zealand Pine wood - beautifully made.  

In addition it has a wood cover - felt on the puzzle side - that fits over the puzzle and locks in place.

The board then folds down and locks together.  It has a handle that makes carrying it easy.

And it can then be stored away for another time - not taking up any table space.

Other than its size - which still seems large to me - it is perfect!

Working on the puzzle is so much easier now than before.  It has several adjustable tilt angles and can swivel on its stand.  The swivel feature is not so important now - but who knows in the future.  

NOW THE BIG QUESTION WAS ... what will the puzzle look like when I open it up again!  So here it is the next morning - set up for puzzling.

No pieces are unlocked. No adjustment necessary.  Just as I left it - except that it might have slipped down the felting just a bit - but it did so as a solid piece.  Excellent!!

The puzzle was completed on Thanksgiving before dinner.

I made this picture big - so you can see what I didn't see.  At first I thought the puzzle had come with an extra piece!  THAT never happens.  A missing piece, maybe.  I showed it to my daughter, she was surprise as well.  So after I took the picture above, I threw the extra piece away.  I then returned to the puzzle to dismantle it - and discovered the open space.  Do you see it?  It is pretty obvious now looking at the full puzzle. Haha.  So I dug out the missing piece from the trash!  

So Here is the puzzle completely finished on my BIG puzzle board.

And BIG is good, right?  

I have heard size matters, right?

  🤣

 

Addiction In A Box

So now I remember ... Addiction.

Almost a full day spent getting this puzzle sorted and prepared for when my daughter arrives to night ... so we can work on it together.  I thought I would start to get the borders in place to save time.  And sorting out some pieces into separate categories so they are easier to sort through.  And then just going a little further with some inside pieces because I couldn't find all the border pieces.  And when I looked up ... it was 3:30 in the afternoon.  I did nothing but work on this puzzle today.  

Geez!!  

I should back up.  The past spring I got it in my head that I wanted to do some jigsaw puzzles.   You know, 'pandemic boredom' had set it.  So I started shopping on line and discovered this was not a new idea.  Apparently the rest of the world had the same idea.  The puzzles I was interested in were selling out at record speed.  I finally settled on 5 puzzles - 1000 pieces each.  Then I paused.  It has been probably  25 years since I did jigsaw puzzles.  So I purchase another one - 500 pieces to get into the swing of this with a smaller challenge.

AND because I don't have a dedicated space to leave a puzzle set up, I shopped around for puzzle savers.  I used to have a HUGE one that did not work very well.  You would close it up like a very large brief case.  When it was re-opened, everything was a mess.  I settled on an inflated roll and cover.

That all happened in the spring and summer.  I had not opened even one of them.  Life got busy and 'pandemic boredom' passed.  Then last weekend my daughter expressed an interest in doing a puzzle and I was thrilled.  But my procastinor self waiting until today - Friday.  By default - today is the day.

That's the back story. The front story is I spent the whole day working on it - couldn't set it down - although I tried twice and found myself returning again and again.  

Here is, 'little old anal me,' setting up the puzzle on my new felt pad.  Along with the puzzle saver roll. I purchased puzzle trays that allow you to sort your pieces by whatever method you choose and keep them neat and tidy between puzzle sessions.  This puzzle was 500 pieces and didn't look too hard.  In the end had an edge piece tray, an object piece tray (if I could make out the object on the piece it when into a tray), a letters piece tray, a blue piece tray, and a checker board floor piece tray.  All the other pieces were left together for now.

At 3:30 after sorting out the trays and trying to complete the border (which I haven't - I also remember swearing that pieces were missing years ago - they never were - but I am sure this time!! 😀) this is what got done. This is the only thing that got done today.

Holy Moly!!  

Does anyone else work on puzzles?  Do you have a method or are you just not as OCD as I am?  Is this progress typical?  Its been 25 years or more and I just don't remember, but I can tell you if you are trying to juggle a job and a family and house hold chores ... DO NOT TAKE UP JIGSAW PUZZLES!!  Of course if you are like me and your time is your own - give them a try.  They are great fun.  I just wish I could leave the puzzle out and put in a few pieces at time and then walk away.  I wonder if they have Jigsaw Puzzle Anonymous groups!

Anyway, I finally packed it up so we could eat at the table and here is how it looks.

And here are the other puzzles waiting in the wings to totally destroy any plans I have for things like laundry, cooking, food shopping, cleaning.  

Oh wait!  I hate doing those things.  

Ha!  So maybe this isn't a bad thing!

And, yes, I show 6 puzzles!  Forgot a few.  And they have a similar theme - Halloween-ie!  Guess I need to broaden by collection.