Like many across Southeast Michigan, we found ourselves without power or cable/internet after heavy storms blew through the area last week.
We happened to be reorganizing our basement at the time and came across three 250-piece “Picture Frame Puzzles” from E&L Corp. We have no idea where they came from (probably a gift at some point) but we’ve been threatening to do a puzzle race against each other and these tiny puzzles seemed like a good opportunity.
Apparently these designs were usually sold in 300-piece versions (they’re long out of print now) but the 250-piece versions with the added “picture frame” embellishments were sold as a set.
We’re not racers by any means and we rarely solo puzzle anymore, so we set a goal of being done in 90 minutes. Jenny took “Thatched Mill” and I took “Hillcrest Cottage” and we were off.
Hillcrest Cottage
I quickly determined that, as much as I prefer to start with the edge, the repetitive pattern of the border pieces was just going to annoy me. As such, I started with the pink sky, figuring that those pieces were at least easily identified.
It was hard not to quit early. Not because the puzzle was difficult, per se, but because I just couldn’t make myself care about it. We’ve gotten into doing so many puzzles that have some kind of meaning to us, and doing them as a pair, that a solo puzzle that I had no connection to just was hard to keep moving on.
Nonetheless, with the sky done, I moved onto the cobblestone path and was eventually able to connect it with the completed sky. Then I could fill in the rest of the cottage itself and the surrounding greenery. I closed it out with the border, made easier by the fact that I knew more of what shape to look for in each position.
Final completed time: 89 minutes, 59 seconds, beating the goal by the scantest of margins.
Thatched Mill
(The following section was written by Jenny.)
While Clark was struggling to keep going, I was powering through trying to get the frame done. It definitely slowed me down on the rest of the puzzle.
It was…. fine. I was trying to go fast because we were racing, not because it was coming together easily. The puzzle boxes smelled awful and that was a barrier I was struggling to overcome. I had even asked Ellie to come turn on the fan so I didn’t have to stop to try and keep going.
Final completed time: 1 hour, 43 minutes, and 33 seconds. I will be glad to do something else soon.
Overall, the puzzles were nothing to write home about. The pieces were thin and fit together a little loosely. That made the border particularly frustrating as it was possible for pieces to fit where they didn’t belong.
There was also a lot of puzzle dust when we cracked open the boxes and a mildew smell that might have been from the production process or might have been absorbed from somewhere along the way.
This was a fun little experiment despite the puzzle quality. Obviously, doing two different puzzles means it wasn’t entirely a fair competition, so we’re not taking much away from that. We still want to try it again with one of our own puzzles.
