Tag: 1000 pieces

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Country Life Crochet

Country Life Crochet is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is Jessica White. She has actually created several different crochet puzzle designs, and I have this one and the Halloween one.

The image is amazing! The stitches are so detailed, and they look so real that you would think you could touch them. That level of detail combined with the random cut of the pieces made this puzzle incredibly difficult, though. It took several sessions to finish it, even with my friend Suzanne helping one evening.

Here are some close ups of a few of the blocks:

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Completing the Puzzle – February 2025

I only did two of the puzzles from my Completing the Puzzle subscription this month. I decided to put my subscription on hold and they asked that I send the puzzles I had back within 7 days, so I only had time to do two of them. I wasn’t too upset about it, though, because the other two weren’t from my wish list and I didn’t mind skipping them.

The first one was Paris in a Day from eeBoo, and it was 1000 pieces. It was the first rectangular eeBoo puzzle I have seen. This was right up my alley with all the different buildings and windows; it helped that there were so many different colors and textures in the image.

The second puzzle I did was Paris from Galison; it was a 1000-piece puzzle and the artist was Michael Storrings. It was a bear to complete, especially compared to the Paris in a Day puzzle I just did. The building colors were all very similar, as were the windows.

I am always drawn to Michael Storrings artwork, but I hesitate to get his puzzles because they seem hard. I do have a 500 piece that is pretty doable, but I wouldn’t want to do this one again.

Once my puzzles are confirmed back at the warehouse, I am planning to cancel my subscription. I have enjoyed getting to do some puzzles that would have been harder or more expensive to obtain, but I am ready to go back to puzzling whatever I want on a given day instead of having to prioritize the subscription puzzles.

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Beach Huts

Beach Huts is a 1000-piece puzzle from Magnolia, and the artist is Olivia Gibbs. Gibbs is one of my favorite artists for puzzles, and I have several other puzzles that she has designed. This one was on my wish list for a while because it was a bit pricier and harder to find. I eventually found it on Fairplay Puzzles, which carries a curated selection of jigsaw puzzles celebrating diversity, equity, and inclusion. Beach Huts is sold out at the time of this post, but they do have an interesting selection of puzzles worth checking out.

The quality of this puzzle was exceptional. The fit was great, which always makes it so much easier to solve. Magnolia has a difficulty rating on their boxes, and they rated this one 3 out of 5, which I would agree with. It was a bit of a slow start but eventually got moving at a decent pace. The pieces have a matte finish, so glare is not an issue. There was a lot of puzzle dust, but that doesn’t bother me now that I have my little desktop vacuum to deal with that.

The image was just perfect for me. It didn’t have too much sky or sand, it had lovely buildings to put together, and it even had some signs with words on them, which I always enjoy. The colors were vibrant and the scene made me happy during one of the coldest weeks of winter so far.

I have one more of her puzzles on my to do shelf, so I am looking forward to that. Do you have any favorite puzzle artists?

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The Artist’s Desk

The Artist’s Desk is a 1000-piece puzzle from Ravensburger. I picked it up at a thrift shop and was pleasantly surprised upon opening the box to find a small ziploc bag with the edge pieces separated out. It was nice to be able to jump right into puzzling!

This was a fun image to put together. I did have to shape sort for the darker areas, but it still wasn’t too hard. And, of course, the Ravensburger quality is always excellent!

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Completing the Puzzle – January 2025

The first puzzle I did from my four-puzzle subscription this month was Envelopes by Tania Wicks. I have wanted to try one of her puzzles for quite a while, but they are pricey and not readily available here in the state, so I was excited to get this one to do.

I absolutely loved it! The image is stunning; I love the subject matter and the colors are so rich and peaceful. The puzzle quality was really good as well, and it was a joy to solve.

My second puzzle was Copenhagen from eeBoo. I always enjoy their puzzles. I like the size and shape of their pieces, and I don’t mind that they are glossy – I have never had a problem with that.

This image is so charming with all the different buildings. I like how some of them are slanted and how they have different textures. So fun!

My third puzzle was Asian Oil Paper Umbrellas from Eurographics. It is a stunning image with lots of bold colors and lovely details. I really enjoyed doing this one. It was challenging without being frustrating, and I’m glad I got the chance to do it.

The quality was okay, but it has definitely been done many times; one of the pieces was smashed and one was missing a corner. Despite that, I had a lot of fun solving this one.

My fourth and final puzzle for this shipment was The Greatest Bookstore in the World, also from Eurographics. I love books and bookstores so was immediately drawn to this image. It started out pretty easy with a few of the larger objects and color blocks but then got tricky with all the tiny little books.

The pieces were all two in, two out, so I couldn’t shape sort. Thankfully they were all unique and I didn’t have any false fits. It was secondhand and there was one piece missing. Overall still a nice challenge.

Closing Thoughts

All four puzzles this month were 1000 pieces. I like that because it feels like I am getting my money’s worth out of the subscription. I am definitely doing one more month of the subscription, possibly two.

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Completing the Puzzle – December 2024

It took me more than a month to finish the four puzzles I got as my Completing the Puzzle subscription for December. I finally finished the fourth one last night.

Rooster from Cloudberries, 1000 pieces

Common Quilt Block Patterns from Cobble Hill, 1000 pieces

New York City Life from eeBoo, 1000 pieces

50 States Quilt Blocks from Cobble Hill, 1000 pieces

I enjoyed all four of them, even though the two quilt block puzzles were very similar. The New York puzzle had one piece missing on the upper left corner, but the 50 States puzzle came with an extra piece form some other puzzle, so I guess it all evened out! I will send the extra piece back in a separate bag with a note so the staff can look for where it goes.

I have 12 more puzzles on my wish list at Completing the Puzzle, so I’m planning to keep my subscription for another 3 months at least. I’m not guaranteed to get puzzles from my wish list, but so far all the ones I have gotten were from there.

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Brick Fest Live 2024

Last Friday, there was a knock at my door and my son answered it to find my friend Jessyca, who I have not seen in several months. I was overjoyed to see her and we had a nice chat to catch up on each other’s lives. She also brought me a Christmas gift, which was a custom puzzle that she had made for me. There was no picture of what the image would be, so it was a surprise as I put it together.

This puzzle is from a company called puzzleYOU and is one of their Smart Sorted puzzles. When you open the box, you see 40 individual little boxes, each with 25 pieces in them. This allows you to choose what level of difficulty you want for your puzzling experience. You can do one box at a time or mix as many as you want together. The box did not show the puzzle, but did have a hint for what the image would be.

I chose to do one box at a time since I didn’t know what the image was. It was so fun to do each little section and then put them together. I had a few times where it seemed like I was missing a piece, but eventually I thought to check the little boxes and found that some of them had a piece at the bottom that hadn’t come out when I emptied the box the first time. So in the end, I was not missing any pieces.

Here are some pictures of my progress at various points:

This was such a fun puzzle to do, and the quality was excellent. The pieces were a nice size and thick enough to pick up easily, and it was fairly easy to move sections around. I especially enjoyed it because it had been made especially for me by a dear friend and was a reminder of the great time we had going to the Brick Fest Live event earlier this year.

I would highly recommend this company if you are interested in making a custom puzzle, and the Smart Sorted option is great for someone who might not have a lot of puzzling experience (but I also loved it even though I have done a lot of puzzles)!

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Love for Holiday Baking

Love for Holiday Baking is a 1000-piece heart-shaped, Christmas-themed puzzle from Callie Danielle. I got it at Target several months ago and have been holding onto it until now when it would fit the season.

My friend Suzanne came over one evening last week and this is the puzzle she chose to help with. She worked on the border, which is her favorite part, and I worked on some of the larger items pictured in the puzzle. Once I was on my own, I spent several evenings working on this puzzle.

Pros:

  • Adorable image
  • Fun heart shape
  • Unique take on a holiday puzzle by focusing on baking related items

Cons:

  • Very small, random-cut pieces
  • Thin pieces were hard for me to pick up
  • Extremely loose fit, came apart if bumped even slightly

I went on a journey with this one. Starting out, I felt hopeful that it would be pretty easy, but that quickly shifted into feeling overwhelmed. Once I got all of the larger items in the image put together, I sorted by shape and started working piece by piece. After a while, I started to make some progress on the big open spaces and felt better about the experience. As always, once it was finished, I felt a sense of accomplishment and appreciated how adorable this puzzle was.

I will admit that having done a few harder puzzles recently prompted me to go through my wish list and remove some that I thought might be on the harder side.

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Vintage Main Street

Vintage Main Street is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is Diane Dempsey. This was my second Dempsey puzzle; I find her art style very appealing.

I have done a lot of puzzles with buildings this year, and this one provides a fresh take on the concept with the vintage store fronts. The classic cars and fun holiday theme are also a lot of fun.

I did end up with one missing piece, which I was very bummed about. This could very well be my fault, as I did drop a couple of pieces on the floor. I thought I found them all but might not have. I’m still hoping it will show up sometime.

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City Sidewalks

City Sidewalks is a 1000-piece puzzle from 1canoe2. This is a new brand for me. It was a bit pricey, so I treated myself to it as an early Christmas present, along with the mini and micro puzzle I did recently.

I really enjoyed this puzzle. I had to get used to the pieces, which felt almost like plastic, but once I did, everything went very smoothly. There were a few darker areas that took a while; thankfully, there weren’t any false fits so it just took a bit of patience. This was a great choice for the holiday season!