I Love Autumn!

September is here and I am so ready for fall! "I Love Autumn" by Gibsons Puzzles is the perfect way to get into the spirit of the season. "I Love..." is a series by illustrator Mike Jupp, they are cartoon scenes with lots of crazy stuff going on.

You can see the beautiful autumn colors on the ribbon cut pieces. The pieces are a wonderful 2.2mm thick.

Gibsons includes a picture for reference while you're working the puzzle, but I really like to do this type of puzzle without looking at the picture. Keep reading to see my approach to this wacky puzzle.

I started by sorting the pieces mostly by color, but also by what's on the pieces, e.g. leaves in one pile, pieces with words in another pile.

I'm a border first person, so of course I started there.

After the border was complete, I started with my pile of pieces with words on them and assembled as many as I could.

Next, I started to cycle through my puzzle trays. I tend to start with the trays that have the smallest piles and end with the trays that have the most pieces. This meant the sky area was next, so I got that done and a few other pieces here and there. Since I'm not working from the picture, I don't know where things belong, so I just work on them in the middle until I have a clue where they go.

Once I feel like I've put all the pieces into place that I can, I put the current tray I'm working from at the bottom of my stack and grab the top tray. As I'm working through the pieces, if I see specific patterns, I'll put them in piles off to the side until I'm ready to work them.

When I start running out of space to work in the puzzle area, I start working on a small piece of foam core board. Here I've moved one of my piles of pieces from the side of my puzzle to the foam core to begin working on it.

Then I can look around the parts of the puzzle that I have assembled and find where my newly assembled section belongs and slide it into place. One of the reasons I like Gibsons Puzzles is the pieces fit together nicely, so it makes moving the sections around a piece of cake.

Now I get back to working through my stack of puzzle trays and adding pieces to the puzzle as I find where they belong. As my trays have less pieces, I combine them so I have fewer and fewer trays to cycle through.

When I'm down to one tray, I just put the pieces alongside the puzzle so it's easier to see what's left. Almost complete.

I've arrived at the last piece, so I write my name and the year on the back of it and then put it into its place.

And here we have it, "I Love Autumn" completed without using the picture.

This puzzle took me 6 hours and 21 minutes. I like assembling puzzles without the picture for the challenge and it extends the amount of time I get to enjoy the puzzle. And I really enjoy Gibsons Puzzles!

If you'd like to try one of the "I Love..." puzzles, there are many to choose from including "I Love Pets" and "I Love the Weekend".

If you're just looking for a fun Gibsons Puzzle, I'd recommend "The Old Sweet Shop"

I hope you'll try one of these funny puzzles, I think you'll enjoy it! To see what I'm up to you can follow me on Instagram @endless.puzzles

Happy puzzling! - Angel