My sister-in-law gifted me with this puzzle at the end of December. She had started working on the border but decided it was too hard and gave up. Knowing I like puzzles she thought I might be up for the challenge.
I too started with the border but found that there were a few missing pieces. I didn't let that stop me. This was clue #2 that I ignored.
The next step wasn't too bad, but yet somewhat challenging.
If this was challenging, then clue #3 was: maybe the rest of pieces would be way tougher to fit together.
Normally sorting is a good place to start, but even that was somewhat daunting.
This was definitely not the final sort. Over time I learned to recognize small discrepancies and resorted again and again .
This was about the point where I had to make a decision. Should I give up or had I invested too much time to stop now.
Resorted to grouping the pieces by shape. It's not getting easier so whatever it takes.
I'm getting so close to the end, I feel like it should be getting easier. Don't be fooled. It doesn't get easier. I don't know how that's possible but I do know I might not ever want to look at blue and orange together again.
Slowly I was able to build around the monarch butterfly but then I hit the point of asking myself if I really wanted to continue. It was getting harder and sometimes more than an hour would pass without finding a place for one new piece.
Obviously I decided to keep going.
It really should be getting easier by now...but it's not!
Still have to find home for so many pieces. Yes, I know, it's upside down. I spend 1/2 my time looking at it from this direction.
Saturday, February 8th.
Completed except for the 3 missing border pieces that I knew were missing from the start. It took 40 days and about 175 hours. Obviously I didn't document the number of hours spent on this, but trust me when I say 175 hours is a very conservative estimate.
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