It Took Awhile, but I Did It!

About 5 years ago, my son Matthew, gave me this jigsaw puzzle. It looked difficult, I was busy, so it went to the bottom of the cupboard. March this year saw 'Lockdown' and it seemed a good time to dig it out and give it a go. You will note that the image of Australia and northern Asia  are blocked out and the overall image is not particularly clear.

The pieces each had a quarter of four photographs of either places, features, flora, fauna and transport of the world. I soon worked out that the pieces could be arranged into two groups. Rows with knobs up and rows with hole up. Later I was to discover that I didn't always get this right.

I took photos to see if I could enlarge the size and perhaps recognise pieces more clearly. I also googled endlessly to see if I could find the 'whole' puzzle. Alas, only Australia but that did help.

I still had lots of other projects to keep me occupied, [Bin Isolation videos and my Scarecrow characters with their daily words of encouragement, as they sat on the footpath] so the sorting was mostly evening. As I looked for the edges, I also sorted the main colours.

The edges slotted together relatively easily and I thought completing the whole puzzle wouldn't be too agonising. Not true. 

I then sorted the colours into knob lines and hole lines. Very time consuming. The pieces were displayed on our dining room table and the actual jigsaw, on a special board, on a folding table beside it. It was Lockdown, so this worked, with no visitors arriving.

Even with all this sorting, progress was frustrating. The colours blended and there were too many pieces to try and match. There were many times when after a few minutes, I would just walk away and work on a more rewarding project.

As time went on, I realised that an end date for the puzzle was far, far away. Therefore I reorganised the study, purloined my husband's work trestle and found more wooden boards to rest the pieces on, leaving just enough room for me to sit at the desk.

Finally enough joined pieces in yellow and orange to try and match them together.

Feeling a lot more positive.

Now for the green pieces.

Fewer boards, so another reorganisation.

Progress yet again slowed to a snail's pace. I purchased a stronger magnifying glass with a light. Without it, I would never have completed this puzzle. It was a struggle to find where each piece belonged. I would pick up a 'knob' and slowly move it along each line of the 'hole' row. More often than not unsuccessfully. I would hover the magnifying glass over the jigsaw and or photo and see if I could find a distinguishing feature. My persistence paid off and some nights I might get 2 or 3 pieces in.

Feeling hopeful!

And then ....................   Note where the RH edge is now jutting out. Weird as!

 

Extra close scutiny discovered that the piece with the white cross wasn't an actual fit. Nor were the pieces in the white arc. I'm amazed that these pieces had seemingly fitted so perfectly right for so long.  Eventhough I knew they were incorrect, they still looked to belong!

Once disconnected and moved down and across, the end was finally in sight!

There was a great sense of achievement as the last few pieces flew in.

Finally! 10.35 pm Saturday 5 September!

Anyone want to borrow it?

I wolud love to read your comment.