Cuddly Panda Puzzle 
by Guest Writer Roberta Shore

Construction: I started with the shirt — a short sentence for a long process. For comparison this is another puzzle from the same series. Meet Cuddly Panda’s friend, Sweet Squirrel. I did this one a few months ago. Again, it was a joyful build. It also took a long time, but there were excellent sorting opportunities with more color variations in the face, tail and ears. Also, his blue and white shirt pattern was more distinct making piecing less arduous. The downside was more mottled background and false fits in the headache causing background and frame. A similar issue happened with Cuddly Panda, so back to her story. (Oh dear, I assigned genders, blue for boy, pink for girl — how old fashioned is that?!)

It didn’t take me long to realize Cuddly Panda was going to present a bigger challenge. I built the squirrel from the bottom up; my first instinct was to do the same for the panda. Instead, when the shirt was done, I decided to do the ears. I’ve only been puzzling for not quite 9 months — this was the smartest puzzler idea I’ve had so far! By piecing the ears together I was able to do all the flowers which even had connection to the eyes. Yes, that was many more hours, but again, more in the wrap up about that. So eyes, and cheeks and nose and mouth were pieced together and gingerly put in place (they still fell apart a bit due to the aforementioned loose fit.) There weren’t many section building opportunities in this puzzle, so loose fit was less of an issue, but it is an ongoing annoyance every time I tried to remove a piece that didn’t quite fit.

The white face was next. I did lay out the sorted pieces by orientation of the fur - more long hours. To repeat, there was a moment of exhilaration every time I fit a piece in place no matter how long the search for it took. I was having a great time. Then came the background and edge pieces when possible. I also laid out those pieces by shape and color tone. Almost at the end I had empty spaces and pieces that didn’t fit them. Something was wrong somewhere. It was incorrectly placed background and edge pieces due to false fits. I was pretty sure about a lot of them being right, but I pulled out some of the edge pieces and the pieces surrounding the holes, lined all the problem pieces up and tried them piece by piece (again). They all found a home.

The wrap up: I do have a personal puzzle preference, and it is the reason I enjoyed this puzzle so much. I prefer illustrations with large areas of similar color to “busy” ones. I’ve done those too — my reviews are not usually near as enthusiastic. Time spent doing “busy” is no less than the time spent on Panda. My puzzles of choice are a no brainer.

So, I mentioned more than once how long it took me to put this puzzle together. I am a slow puzzler, and it really doesn’t bother me. I do not record my puzzling time. I take a lot of breaks. I still reference the picture. After 9 months, I am more confident about taking on a puzzle that looks challenging, but I don’t think I’m much faster at the task (hence, “advancing” newbie). Puzzles cost money. I get a lot of play time for my investment. Makes sense to me. Puzzling competitions - obviously I would not qualify, but I’m not against them. It is a whole different category.

And yes, I do a lot of sub sorting - and yes, it takes time. It is definitely my least favorite part of puzzling. But, for me, it makes the build process more satisfying which only adds to the fun.

I am so grateful that puzzling is an individual and private avocation, a peaceful, calming, activity usually done alone and without malice in mind. I know some of you want to see how fast you can complete a puzzle, some of you don’t like to piece large areas of similar color, some of you pick out the edge pieces but don’t sort at all. It’s all fine. Puzzling is a beautiful thing!

All that aside, this was not an easy puzzle. I stand by hard for new puzzlers, at best intermediate for most. It was pretty much a piece by piece process, and therefore would take anyone more time. But, it is such a cute puzzle. Great to frame in a little child’s room. If you liked the two I pictured above, there are two others in the Heye Floral Friends series. The 500 piece Funny Hedgehog - personally it looks more scary than funny, and the 1000 piece Gentle Bruin, which of course I own. :-)