Quilted Critters Puzzle

I have always loved making puzzles and one of my bucket list dreams was to get a chance to design one. Several years ago I sent work to several puzzle companies, and was so excited when Tony at Puzzle Twist hired me to create a bird puzzle for them. We’ve had a lovely working relationship making puzzles since then and when I pitched my quilt and nature inspired paintings last year, I was happy they were as excited about the design as I was. We weren’t the only ones who loved this puzzle… Fast forward to this year, and “Quilted Critters” was just revealed as the USA Jigsaw Association Speed Run Puzzle of the year (2025).

The USA Jigsaw Puzzle Association national competitions were held this past weekend in DC, and since we now live so close, I was able to be there for the reveal the talk on stage about the design a bit.

I’ve never been to a puzzling competition before, and was amazed at how exciting it was. While it is competitive, it also felt like a big community where the feeling was so positive and encouraging. Teams with creative names had fun team outfits and I wish I would have taken a lot more photos.

This is one shot of the team puzzling. They had to complete 2 - 1000 piece puzzles if I understood right. (There was so much to learn about puzzle competitions!)

It was an honor to have my illustration chosen for the Speed Run puzzle competition. If this is the fit time you’ve heard about this, let me give you a quick rundown.

The competition runs for the whole year, and you can sign up as a single or in a team up to 4, and you are allowed to make the puzzle as many times as you want throughout the year. You have to record it as a time lapse video to keep things honest, and then upload it with your time to the official website. You try to beat your and the other gamers scores.

Last year’s single puzzler winner completed the 500 piece puzzle in 17 minutes! I can’t imagine doing a 500 piece puzzle that fast. The second incredible fact that I heard was that one person (I can’t remember if it was the winner) completed and entered their time 200 times. That’s about 4x a week!

I can’t wait to see what times my puzzle gets this year and look forwards to being tagged as people complete them. I just received my box, and we’re looking forward to putting it together too - but on a much more leisurely pace.

I’ve got plans for two new puzzle designs for the future and can’t wait to share them with you. I’ll put all the current designs with puzzle twist below so you can see them. Click on the image if you want to purchase one directly from them.