Haven’t done any in a while but I always do edges first, keeping an eye out for the corners. I also note if there’s any particular areas with a different color or pattern or words and set those pieces aside as I run into them. I basically continue to sort through pieces as I move them from the box to the lid and back until I get enough puzzle done that I can fit the rest of the pieces on the table.
Generally I’ve done 1000 piece puzzles. Back when we lived in Chicagoland, I did a lot of Chicago city skyline types of puzzles. Then I would glue them using a puzzle glue and put them in cheap poster style frames and hang them up in the guest room. I called it the Skyline Room. I also once did a puzzle of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, glued it, framed it, and put it next to my needlepoint of the same painting. All of these are in big boxes in the garage now - along with my State Quarters jigsaw that had spaces for all the quarters.
Later puzzles tended to be beachy scenes. I used to find nice ones at Tuesday Morning, especially during the holidays. I redid my favorite puzzles during the pandemic and did toss out one that was missing a piece.
I gather all the edge pieces first. After putting together the outer edges, I begin working on the inside by turning all pieces right side up & separating by color. I use the picture on the box often for reference.
I’m another edge/corner pieces first person.
Sort by color areas when appropriate, or things like big letters and other “obvious” areas that would go together.
Silly related story - when my now DIL first spent time here, we stayed up until something like 3 AM doing a puzzle. It went something like I didn’t want to leave her alone to do the puzzle, and she didn’t want to wimp out on me, so we just kept going and going.
I hadn’t done puzzles in years. But, my 5 year granddaughter did a 100 piece one with me and repeatedly when we visited asked to do it. Much to my surprise she asked for puzzles for Christmas from Santa! As above do the edges first then sort by color.
I don’t remember how we got into puzzles, but it started with one of my kids. I even bought a big rotating puzzle board that lives on our dining room table unless we have company for dinner.
During the pandemic shut down, we went through a lot of puzzles - we bought 1000+ piece puzzles. Dh and our youngest daughter really bonded over doing them together. Dh just finished one this weekend that I gave him for Christmas.
We typically gather all the edge pieces first and put that together. Depending on the puzzle, we then sometimes group pieces that we think go together, laying them out flat. Dh often uses small cookie sheets for that.
I love puzzles as do my D and her fiancé and S and his fiancée so we usually do one or two 1000 piece puzzles on vacation.
I have a big puzzle mat and use these sorting trays to sort pieces:
My husband’s family always had a puzzle going when we had family reunions at the beach. So when we got together last year before Christmas for the first time in forever my nephew brought a diabolical 5000 piece monster. It took almost then entire week we were together to finish it and it didn’t really fit on the coffee table (note the cardboard extenders) The black “Frame” was really not fun to put together, so while we normally do that first it didn’t get fully done until we had done lots of the more fun middle. One piece went missing when we had to move the puzzle for the cleaning crew, and was found a few days after we had finished it. You can see it in the photo. I don’t actually like doing puzzles that much, but I always get sucked in if there’s one started.
A few years ago, I stopped taking an SSRI cold turkey (not recommended). My calm but dull emotions changed to suddenly having highs and lows. I cried the whole time I was making a highlight video of my daughter playing soccer set to music for Pete’s sake! But when same daughter was musing about what I and my husband would do during retirement, she suggested doing puzzles together. I burst out laughing hysterically at the thought of my H (not a conversationalist at all) and me sitting and doing puzzles. I couldn’t stop for several minutes and my fam was looking at me like I had two heads.
So, yeah, that’s my opinion on puzzles. Just not my thing.
So what do you do when you or your people finish a puzzle? Look at it for 24 hours and then pack it up? Pack it up immediately? Keep your puzzles or trade or sell them?
Anyone frame a puzzle? Did you start it on a piece of poster board or something??
We like doing puzzles, but haven’t done one lately. I have given several away after we are done with them but we do have one matted and framed.
Our Buy Nothing group here hosts a puzzle and game exchange each fall.
We do puzzles on vacations and in the summer, just me and the kids, DH HATES puzzles. After we finish them (if we finish them), we take them apart and I pass them along to others (usually on craigslist) for free and ask them to pass them along as well. A yearly puzzle/game exchange as someone above suggested would be a great idea too!
My mom likes to do puzzles, and I always work on them when I’m at her house. At my house, the cats always steal and hide the pieces… but we still enjoy doing puzzles from time to time. Personally, I really enjoy the mystery puzzles made by the Magic Puzzle Company!
