Ruby Geranium - Puzzling

What a lovely image for a puzzle! I am very fond of hummingbirds and liked this picture very much. Although I purchased it last year, I only got round to doing it recently. It is called 'Ruby Geranium' and I found this one on Amazon. I could only locate one copy there, and none on the Cobble Hill website itself. Whether it is still available I couldn't tell.

It was an enjoyable build for sure even if the red got tricky at times. Being a Cobble Hill the quality was good, I love the linen finish of the pieces, the beautiful saturated colours and the random cut of the pieces. I did notice that the cut on this is different from the more recent Cobble Hills I've done, but I liked it just as much.

After building the outer edge I started on the inside areas by picking out the easy to find bits, and assembling that as far as possible.

I don't usually sort the pieces into trays to work from just because it is not practical to do in the space where I puzzle, however I do a 'general sorting' when there are large areas of similar colours that looks something like this -

Once I have separate piles I will take one colour pile at a time and assemble from there.
In this case I started with the green pile and at the bottom of the image working my way up, before starting on the reds, again working from the bottom up. It is always so nice to discover pieces for other areas, such as the birds, while assembling a leaf or flower!

And a couple of close-ups on those adorable feisty little birds.

These images also show the difference in the random cut, compared to the image of the American Goldfinch in the bottom image ( Sunflowers and Goldfinches - see the post HERE)

Definitely a keeper puzzle that will become one to do repeatedly over the years. I'm glad to add it to my stock of bird themed puzzles and it is a good addition to my  Cobble Hill Collection

Just Adding Colour...

Time to catch up on some colouring pages...I always a few books by my side so that even a few minutes can be translated into a refreshing colourful little jaunt!

These pages are from 'Tally Ho!' by  Lizzie Mary Cullen. I really like her drawing style and liked the idea of English/British images in the book. I enjoy it when colouring pages have little items to find or identify on the pages and this one has little items tucked into the drawing that relate to the quote. I enjoy looking for those!

There's a few books in the series, but I thought this one would give me plenty to colour.

I was particularly keen to do these 'Canterbury Tales' pages. I took my time and enjoyed the journey. No pun intended!

This was the first page to colour as we had  visited the Isle of Wight and Osborne House, just prior to me getting this book. It seemed the 'right' place to start in a book about the UK.

I don't agree with the sentiment of the 'saying' or quote on this one, but I did want to colour the picture....

Tally Ho by Lizzie Mary Cullen  The current price on Amazon Canada is insane, but this is what the book looks like. The price on ABE Books is much better.

World Puzzle Days

Long silence here from me. It's been good-busy around here.
My year kicked off with participating in the World Puzzle Days Challenge. Günther (who organises this giant effort) found me a sponsor so I was able to puzzle along.
Initially I thought I would commit to doing 3 x 1000 puzzles over the two months of the challenge, then committed to 6000 pieces total and managed to do 12 x 1000 pieces.
Every year a 'secret symbol' is selected that has to feature on all puzzles, at the start, mid-way and final pictures of assembled puzzles are also submitted. Sadly people cannot even build puzzles for a fun challenge, without cheating.... This year we had to feature a salt shaker.

And here is my line-up of puzzles!

Title - Bird Watchers
Brand - Cobble Hill
1000 Pieces

Such a lovely image. Not the easiest of puzzles and not the best choice when you are trying to assemble as many puzzles as possible, but I really wanted to do it again...so I did! This beauty was a gift from a friend a few years ago and this was my second time assembling it.

  

Followed by a free puzzle I was given by a local fellow puzzler

Title - Church
Brand - BigBen by MB
1000 Pieces

I really enjoyed doing this one and it was a quickie! Just take a look at the details of this hitching post!

Title - Camden's Independence Day Parade - my first Heronim, borrowed from a friend who collects Heronim puzzles 

Brand - Mega Puzzles

1000 Pieces

Next I took on the challenge of a Thomas Kinkade puzzle I received for Christmas...

Title - Spirit of Christmas

Brand - Ceaco

1000 Pieces

Really pretty,but quite the stinker! It will prove to be a fun regular holiday challenger!

Next up - this was not as pretty as I had thought. I had traded it from a local puzzler...and promptly traded it again after finishing it. It is so nice to have a local trading group!

It was interesting to do though and very quick.

Title - Grandma's Attic

Brand - Ravensburger

1000 Pieces

Here's another colourful one - borrowed from another puzzler in our local group...It went much quicker than I expected and was a riot of colour in our grey January winter.

Title - Hummingbird Garden

Brand - Buffalo

1000 Pieces

I do enjoy pictures where I can tell by the individual pieces what they are a part of or where they belong. This is another of that type of puzzle and was really quick to do, which was just what I needed for a WPD challenge!

Title - McKenna's General Store

Brand - FX Schmid

1000 Pieces

Sometimes I needed to take a mid-way picture when the light was bad or at night...

Next up another favourite - a new puzzle and instant favourite of mine. I look forward to doing it again.

Title - Undersea Quilt Garden

Brand - Bits & Pieces

1000 Pieces

I think these old style illustrations are just beautiful! The puzzle wasn't difficult, just very enjoyable.

I had planned to do many more Cobble Hill puzzles, but then all these borrowed ones pushed in and I decided to do them first so I can return them to their owners. However I did have to add this fun traded one in here. I'm so pleased to have this in my collection. It's a little tricky to get going, but is a good nice challenge.

Title - Ice Cream

Brand - Cobble Hill

1000 Pieces

Yummy ice cream, yummy details, yummy puzzle pieces!

Another favourite puzzle style with me is Dowdle. I was given a couple of his puzzles some years ago and enjoyed them, so when a local puzzler offered me this one to build I grabbed the opportunity. Just sorry I could not trade it! It was a great build!

Title - Vancouver

Brand - Dowdle

1000 Pieces

All those delightful details!

Another borrowed puzzle -  also from my friend who collects Heronim puzzles. These images were the quickest of all to do.

Title - Brown Derby

Brand - Mega Puzzles

1000 Pieces

And finally - another Heronim that I got locally from a fellow 'trader' and passed on to my friend to add to her collection. This was quite pretty and I enjoyed doing it!

Title - Checking in at the Grand Peacock

Brand - Sure-Lox

1000 Pieces

So will I be taking part in the World Puzzle Days Challenge again next year? I don't know. I enjoyed it, but I did miss doing some of the other things I like to do. Such as reading! Feeling like I need to do my part for the challenge meant that I put everything else on ice and only did jigsaws for two months.

But by next year I may be ready to jump in and play along again, provided there is a sponsor for me. I understand there needs to be payment to participate, but I'd rather buy a puzzle for the fee and puzzle at my own pace.

So the verdict will stay out until closer to sign-up time for WPD 2021!

And yes...I'm still puzzling...just finished a beautiful Cobble Hill last night. Post coming soon.