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National Puzzle Day

Today is National Puzzle Day (apparently). Like most national days, it seems to be a relatively new celebration, most likely created to sell products.


In honor of the celebration, I share with you my completion of Anatolian's 3000 piece Mystery Writers (#4918)

Check out all its majesty!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I got it from Goodwill so there was a chance of missing pieces. Look closely: two are not there. Since it is a 3000 piece puzzle, that means that 99.93% of the puzzle is present. However, I don't feel 99.93% satisfied with my completion. Don't get me wrong; I still feel massively successful (my last 3000 piece puzzle took me over a year (in part because I kept forgetting about it)). But I'd say I'm closer to a 98% feeling of success.


My puzzle strategy:

  1. Edges first. I don't think I'm alone there.
  2. Major sub images. In this case, I did the clock, peacock, and ladder
  3. Sort remaining pieces by color. I have special puzzle sorting trays for this purpose.
  4. As pieces dwindle, separate by shape.
This puzzle wasn't too bad since there's a lot going on and a lot of colors. The red shelves provided good framing sections.

I'll try to photo document my next puzzle (although it will be a measly 1000 piece).



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