National Puzzle Day

 Happy National Puzzle Day everyone!

I always thought the puzzles I would like to fix the most would be big picture - lots of pieces.

The first big one I got was from my 82 year old neighbor, who I trade puzzles with. It was given to her from her granddaughter but was way too big for her. 

It was 6 ft x 4ft. Mike had to make me a new table top to fit it. It took up most of the living room.

5000 pieces

Took me a couple months to fix and I enjoyed sorting the pieces. Wasn't too bad for a first big puzzle.

I wanted to try some others.

Scrolling thru some puzzle websites I found a 6000 and a 4000 piece puzzle that I put on my Christmas list last year. Mike got them for me.

Enjoyed the all - the 4000 was the most fun - more color I guess.

Puzzles are a family affair - Sharen and I once timed ourselves on how fast we could fix a 500 piece puzzle together. 20 Minutes.

Mary and Dave were in town when I had my 6000 piece out and sat and found some pieces.

Mary and Dave joining in on the fun

My sisters Linda and Deanna are big puzzle fixers too and have one out for fixing everyday. We share the fun ones.

From Linda

She was right I liked this one.

I thought I had fixed them all. 

I thought the big ones would be my favorite, I like sorting pieces by color. 

Then I got one from Stacy for Mothers Day last year.

This was BY FAR the best puzzle I have ever fixed. 

A pile of coffee beans. I had to sort the pieces by shape. Instead of picking up pieces and bringing them into the puzzle I would pick up 3 pieces to make a corner and search over the single pieces till I found the right one.

pieces sorted by shape

closing in

Ta Da

It took me about 3 months. I found that I have patients to sit at a table for stretches at a time and study shapes and colors without getting one piece to fit - not getting frustrated and actually enjoying myself. I texted Stacy multiple times telling her what fun I was having.

She thought that I would enjoy it and that was part of why I did I guess. A very thoughtful gift.

Well this Christmas I got another thoughtful puzzle from my son. Bryan got me this.

A chance to win 1 million dollar puzzle.

A Million Dollar winner?

I couldn't get the tree down fast enough so I could put my puzzle table up under the window.

It was a QR code that you had to scan. The puzzle wasn't hard to fix, but so much fun.

pieces sorted

I took my time fixing it dreaming on how I was gonna treat everyone with my winning.

Puzzle Done

I scan the QR code which sends me to the website for winners, enter my pass code that was given to me from  the inside of my puzzle box and find that I won a whopping 25 cents.

 

Didn't matter - I had a really fun time with this one too. 

So I decided it isn't about the size of a puzzle it's more about the feelings a puzzle can bring.

So I am on to Linda's house to exchange some puzzles. I fixed 5 this month. No, I don't spend all my days fixing puzzles. I read 5 books and made 1 quilt.