Wednesday 9 September 2020

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.

16 comments:

  1. My Mom is a Jigsaw addict and always looking for the next challenge - I might show here this one!

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    1. I hope this means you love her lots!

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    2. If your Mom does do it, please let me know how she finds it.

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  2. Congratulations!!!

    Oh Helen, I love, love, love this post! What an unusual and fascinating puzzle, and it's great you documented your progress.
    The puzzle looks very difficult indeed. Seeing the first photos of this post, I was getting hysterical.
    I would have a small request: could you show how Finland looks? :)

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    1. I still don't think I am ready for your 6000 piece, Sara. Photo coming.

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  3. Wow - that is one tough puzzle! Kudos to you for keeping at it. I would've probably packed the pieces back into the box in frustration.

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  4. Good grief. You are persistent and determined. I would not have persisted but what a great project for these times.

    Helen, we went to Rice Point today and there were seals off shore. So exciting to see them. The photos aren’t great because they were so far away but it was great to see them. Thank you for the info. It is a beautiful area. We will go back there.

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    1. That's wonderful Marie! My first visit, in June, was when the road down to the bay was lined with lupins and the hay was being harvested. Just spectacular with the red cliffs. It was on my October visit that I saw them.

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  5. Wow - that looks super complicated! Well done you.

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  6. You clearly have a zillion times more patience than I do. Congratulations!

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  7. Thanks everyone. My husband was becoming quite testy as to when he would get his trestles back. If the photograph on the box had just been clearer, progress would have been smoother.

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  8. Oh my gosh, Helen! You get a medal. I could never have finished that. What is Matthew trying to do to his mother? I loved following your progress. Good work!

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  9. Amazing and no I wouldn't want to borrow it. I am not good at even easy jigsaws.

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  10. I do love a challenging jigsaw but this looks almost too challenging.

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  11. I have a puzzle to do, but the cats are determined to play with the pieces!

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  12. I am not a puzzle person at all. Kudos to you for all the hard work.

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