This week the new thing that I tried was… 1000 piece puzzle.

I have clearly made puzzles before, but I hadn’t in a really long time. I am not one of those people who usually do puzzles. Don’t get me wrong though, puzzles can be really fun.

When I first started the puzzle I laid out all of the pieces on a counter and started to sort out the edge pieces from the others. This took over an hour! All was good though because I had Netflix going and had just started to rewatch Greys Anatomy.

After I had finished sorting out the edge pieces, I started to put them together. First I did the top and bottom areas because they had patterns, then I did the other two sides which ended up being more of a guess and check. This took FOR-EV-ER. I was almost done with the edges and then I needed two more pieces, and the weren’t there!

As I looked through the hundreds of pieces, I couldn’t find it. Eventually I gave up on that idea and decided to start on the rest of the puzzle and hoped to find it as I went on.

For about two more hours I worked on it, but was only able to find a few clumps that went together. I had to stop because I had to pack to go up to mammoth the next morning. The puzzle stayed on the counter while I was gone and the day I got back, I started at it again.

Once again I sat there with the Netflix on, but sometimes I would have to shut it off so I could focus better. I figured out that the second layer of pieces in might be obvious because of the framing. Learning that really got me started and piece by piece it started to come together. Like most puzzles, sometimes people try to put pieces where they don’t belong. Of course I tried this unknowningly. Over time it got easlier

Then… in no time (7 hours) it was almost done. The time went by so quickly, probably because of the Netflix, but puzzles are seriously addicting once you get in the mindset. It is hard to stop when you know you are so close.

A little while longer… and it was done!!! It really took a long time, but 1000 pieces are a lot. Next time I do a puzzle, I will probably choose a smaller one.

I did realize that it took at lot of mind work because your eyes really have to be scanning all the time. It was fun and I would totally do it again (but smaller).

Have you ever tried a 1000 piece puzzle?