Here are photos of the progress of the Hummingbird Reflections puzzle. When sorting the pieces, it was noticed that many pieces had a narrow blue edge so they were assembled first. This enabled the outline of the puzzle to be completed. Then small groups of pieces were put together and then slid into the place within the puzzle where they belonged. Other pieces were added as the puzzle was worked on. This is the current status of this beautiful puzzle… it’s now completed. I thought you might enjoy seeing the various stages of completion. This puzzle has approximately 600 large pieces, and the puzzle is 26″ x 37″. The foam board the puzzle is being assembled on is 32″ x 40″. This will give you an idea how large this puzzle is. The large hummingbird at the top left of the puzzle is larger than my hand, it’s about 10″ long.
The cover of the box for this puzzle says to look for 13 ladybugs, 8 ants, 5 bees, 2 caterpillars, and 1 grasshopper to find after puzzle is completed. Click on the picture if you want to see the details more clearly, and perhaps look for these insects. The photo on the box cover is probably the most clear to look at to find the insects.
The other night when I was sitting in bed, I thought it would be a good time to start sorting pieces for the next puzzle that would be worked on. The hummingbird puzzle is coming along just fine and it might be finished soon… Update: It was completed the day after I posted this story.
The next puzzle in line to be assembled is Parrots in Paradise. This is one of the puzzles that Diane at Suns Out Puzzle Company sent me as a gift. This puzzle has approximately 1,000 pieces and it’s 26″ x 38.5″. It’s a good thing I have another really large foam board. After finishing a puzzle I keep it together for a few weeks and admire it, and of course show it to people visiting me, then I take it apart and pass it on so someone else can enjoy it.
As I was sorting the parrot puzzle pieces, it was evident that the puzzle pieces were much smaller than the hummingbird puzzle pieces. The pieces are also more of a traditional puzzle shape, not all of the pieces, but most of them. I also noticed that there is a solid narrow green edge on many pieces so I figured these are the outline and edge pieces. I separated them into one pile, and will sort the remaining pieces by color another time. The parrot puzzle is mostly red, blue, green, and yellow pieces. I think it’s going to be a very challenging puzzle to complete. That’s okay, several of the puzzles Pam and I have worked on over the past several months have been challenging. When Mary Lou visits she helps with the current puzzle. We find the challenging puzzles more fun and interesting.
Here is a picture of some of the parrot puzzle pieces. I thought you might like to see a comparison between them and the hummingbird pieces. One the left side of the board are end pieces of the parrot puzzle, in the center are the inside pieces, and on the right are hummingbird pieces. I placed 2 quarters on the board so you can see a size comparison. If you click on the picture of the puzzle pieces, you will notice that most of the edge pieces do not have a straight edge. I had to look carefully at each piece to determine if it’s an edge piece. Having unusual shaped pieces makes the puzzle so much more fun to assemble.
Update: Today, February 18th, my friend Mary Lou came to visit me and we finished the Hummingbird Reflections puzzle. Since we still had time before she had to leave, we started the Parrots in Paradise puzzle. I showed her my technique of how to begin the puzzle and she agreed that it makes it easier to assemble them. It also allows us to work on different sections of the puzzle which works well when more than one person is working on the puzzle. In a previous story I wrote about puzzles has the handy tips I found that work well for assembling puzzles. Basically, it’s separating the pieces into colors and putting each color or section of the puzzle that can be identified in bowls. Then sections are assembled and moved onto the larger foam board where they pieces will be connected.
Here is the beginning of the parrot puzzle. The edge pieces are very unusual shapes which makes putting the frame of the puzzle extremely challenging.
