Puzzled

[Danesa]

I'm starting a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle this evening. When you put a puzzle together, do you put together the framing first or how do you begin? I pick each individual puzzle piece out of the box and find the edge pieces but I also put alike colors together. When my daughters were here, last year, we did a puzzle and it drove me absolutely mad that they just place pieces all over with no organization. Am I a bit obsessive compulsive or there others with me?

 

[taxed4ever]

I am the same as you and do the outside frame first, then alike colours. Guess I am a bit OCD too LOL.

 

[Jeannette]

I do the outside frame first and yes, but I don't organize the piesces in colors. I just search a handful out of the box, from which I think they will fit the part I'm working on. In the end I have pieces everywhere. Not so organized I guess

 

[Madi]

first the frame, and then I work all over the place.
then I have all large puzzle pieces, 6 to 8 pieces together and they just get bigger and bigger.
when I am stuck in one piece I start at another one in another place. It gets done in the end!

 

[Madi]

my max. is a 1000 pieces puzzle,

I saw this in a shop a few weeks back
for the real fanatic puzzlers!

 

[janedee]

Frame first, then I pick out a section to work on and pull all the pieces I think will fit in that area.

 

[faerywings]

It is so funny that you ask that! My DD and I do puzzles together all of the time and we have different approaches which make it sometimes funny and sometimes annoying to each other.

We always start out the same way-- we sort all of the pieces so she can start edges. That is where the agreement seems to end. She likes to sort similar colors into separate plates. I, OTOH, prefer to look for visual similarities so I like them spread across the table to scan. So we have sort of fallen into a compromise that we sort everything onto the plates then I grab a plate and work from there.
When I get big chunks, she is able to put them into place. We both agree that my husband's analytical process is not always helpful. He will find random pieces and look at the box and put it where it should be. Unconnected to anything. Just floatin' out there...

We usually do 1000 piece puzzles and have done a 2000 piece one once but my table to really too small to do anything that large if we want to eat.

 

[Nickel]

That was along time ago when I did a jig saw puzzle! I also started with the borders of the puzzle

 

[Danesa]

Diane: Oh my gosh! That 42,000 piece puzzle would kill my back. haha I don't know that I have a floor large enough for that puzzle, forget a table. That needs to be in a community room for all to join in.

My Cancer Center, at the hospital, has a puzzle room. Everyone works on it when they are there, waiting for appointments or treatments. I often wonder if someone takes a piece and hides it so they can say they finished the last piece. haha

Chris...I'm pretty good about looking at the box lid and guesstimating where it should go. Even if I have to keep shifting it around as the puzzle fills in. ha I finished my puzzle last night. My back was so glad. I need a higher puzzle table so it wouldn't be so hard on my back!

Its fun to see how everyone takes on the task of puzzling!

 

[VickiStegall]

I too do the frame then in random sections. Usually find a couple of pieces that go togther and build around that for a bit, then get distracted by another section and move there

 

[marijke]

I did it once ... and I didn't love it ... I don't have the patience

 

[VickiStegall]

I did it once ... and I didn't love it ... I don't have the patience

lol me too! I start them and NEVER finish.

 

[Danesa]

Ya'll are so funny! I find puzzles de-stressing. Maybe because its something I can walk away from and not feel guilty, like so many things during my day! I do find, though, that it keeps me awake too many times for all-nighter sessions of being puzzled. I finished my puzzle in 3 days so you know I was a night owl A LOT! haha