New year's resolution

This Amish quilt puzzle is kickin' my butt. When I dumped it out of the box I managed to put the border together. Then I stared, gobsmacked, at the other 900 pieces, all jumbled together in colorful cacophony, and was not able to wrap my brain around how to organize anything.

No single color anywhere that was more than an inch in diameter. No recognizable image to speak of, to build around.

Data Dad takes a quick look. He says, just organize the pieces into piles according to the colored lines of boxes in the pattern. Hmmph. Says you, I said. Well, I don't like to admit it but he was right. His suggestion made me look at everything in a new way. I'm eating humble pie as I write.

Working from the image on the box, it took a day to organize everything into piles (see pix). Then, I started in the middle at the bottom and have been working my way up ever since. The pix show my progress thus far. I'll post more as I move through this.

So what's my new year's resolution? Admit to Data Dad more often that he's right. It will be dang hard but hey, if it shifts my paradigm, why not?

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Transported to another place and time . . .

Isn't this lovely? Plum and Peach Bloom, by artist Gustave Baumann, makes me yearn for farm living: an orchard, a water pump, hens and chicks roaming the yard, a bloomer-clad tot—the whole bucolic enchilada.

Baumann's paintings were strongly influenced by the landscape of New Mexico and, in addition to painting, he was a puppet maker and an expert woodblock printer!

Finishing the the white blossoms of the trees was just plain hard. Maybe not as hard as completing a large section of one solid color—but close. Assembling it was tedious, a process of moving piece by piece, looking for shapes that would fit (rather than going by colors and images).

I'm now working on something harder, though—a puzzle that is a reproduction of an Amish quilt. Will post when it's done, which may be Christmas 2011, given the challenge—I'll post pix in progress!

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw Maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌

Holidays & puzzles

Extra! Extra! Jiggy Jr. returns, inspires Jiggy Senior to resume blogging!


Yes, dear readers, Jiggy Jr.'s lovely presence (home for the holidays) has reminded me of the pleasures of blogging. It was Jiggy Jr. herself who taught me the fine art of uploading photos onto the blog site and using the blog tools. And it was with Jiggy Jr. that I last encountered (and bought) a pile of wonderful puzzles. While she has been benefiting from the hallowed halls of higher education, I have been swamped by those halls and, alas, blogging has fallen by the wayside.

Nevertheless, those who know of my love for jigsaw puzzles have continued to forward pictures of things (statues, games, books, monuments) that demonstrate the "jigsaw puzzle as metaphor for life." And, despite Jiggy's absence, I have continued to work on puzzles. Above, a puzzle based on the wonderful Diego Rivera mural. The details of this manufacture—engine assembly in Detroit—kept me absorbed over the fall season. Later, I'll post a new puzzle which has absorbed me in the early days of winter!

In fully interlocking solidarity,
Jigsaw maniac

Loose lips sink ships—keep busy with jigsaw puzzles ✌