Holiday Drive In

Holiday Drive In is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is Diane Dempsey. I love the mid-century modern theme of this image, with the vintage cars and the fun signage. My favorite parts to put together were the movie screen and all of the signs – I love puzzling words!

I have done a couple other puzzles from this artist and really enjoy her style. Cobble Hill is a really good quality brand that does random-cut puzzles. I tend to do more ribbon or grid cut puzzles, but the random cut didn’t bother me with this one because it was such a great image.

Have you ever been to a drive in movie? I have fond memories of going with my family as a child and playing on the little playground beneath the screen before the movie started.

Found Alphabet

Found Alphabet is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is Shelley Davies.

This was such a fun puzzle! I had been putting it off because it is a random cut puzzle and those are not my favorite, but this one was such a joy to do that I hardly even noticed the piece cut.

There are so many interesting textures, and I love the fact that it’s a grid puzzle. Highly recommend!

Into the Jungle

Into the Jungle is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is David Penfound. This is another puzzle I got for free from a friend.

I am very pleased with how it turned out even though there is one piece missing. It provided several sessions of puzzling and is such a nice image. Cobble Hill are a good quality puzzle with a matte/linen finish. Their puzzles are random-cut, which does increase the difficulty of the solve. Towards the end, I was convinced there would be several pieces missing based on the holes I had left to fill, but the odd pieces shapes ended up filling everything except for that one little piece on the left edge.

Easter Eggs

Easter Eggs is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill. I had hoped to do it for Easter this year but ran a little bit behind! Oh well, it was still a lot of fun to do.

Cobble Hill puzzles are excellent quality with thick, matte pieces, but I am always amazed at the sheer volume of puzzle dust. I had to get out my mini desktop vacuum after sorting and then again after building the border!

I was a bit nervous about doing another random cut puzzle from this manufacturer after how hard Country Life Crochet was, but Easter Eggs was a lot easier than that one. The details were much easier to pick out on these pieces than the intricate stitching on the other one.

Here are some closeups:

Such a fun, festive puzzle! This might have to be a spring staple for me.

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:

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.

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.

Completing the Puzzle – November 2024

This was my third month getting a subscription of four puzzles from Completing the Puzzle. I received 4 500-piece puzzles this time. I was hoping to get some 1000-piece puzzles since I have a lot of those on my wishlist. My wishlist only has a couple of 500-piece puzzles on it now, so I should definitely get some 1000-piece ones next month.

I enjoyed all of the puzzles I got with this shipment. A couple of them were pretty well-worn, which makes them feel a bit soft and they don’t click into place. I don’t prefer that, but it’s okay. My friend Renee was over when I did Artsy Cats and helped with it.

Here are the puzzles I got this month:

Origami Animals from Cobble Hill
Stained Windows from Mintyfizz
Artsy Cats from Mudpuppy
Home Sweet Home from Cobble Hill

I’m looking forward to what I get next month. I also have a bunch of winter/Christmas puzzles lined up to start on December 1st.

Mid-Century Modern Dream Home

Mid-Century Modern Dream Home is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is Diane Dempsey. The quality of this puzzle is outstanding. I chose it because I liked the image, which shows a variety of mid-century modern homes, along with some cars from that time frame.

With all that said, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked. There were a lot of the same colors spread across the puzzle, so it was hard to pick out a section to work on. It also had more brown and beige than I like. I do still plan to get some of their retro Christmas puzzles, though.

Harvest Festival

Harvest Festival is a 500-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is Nancy Wernersbach. I enjoyed it a lot. It does come in 1000 pieces, but I think I am happy with the one that I did since there is a lot of detail.

This image just has so much to like in it – a covered bridge, colorful quilts, autumn fruits and vegetables, and various other cozy elements. And of course, there are signs with words on them – always a treat!