Puzzles, Challenges, and Games (Oh My)
Posted by Gailen Runge on May 8th 2018
Got a good logic problem? Count me in!
It all started when we were looking for a fun follow-up to our best-selling puzzle book Happy Quilter Word Search—Volume 1. Would volume 2 be more word searches? What else could we do? It turns out that quilters like word games. And so do I! (I am a quilter after all.) So what could be better than a book of Happy Quilter Variety Puzzles?
I had a great time researching the different types of word problems out there. I didn't have far to go: when I'm bored at airports, I'm often attracted to the variety puzzle books in the news sellers. Once I have the variety puzzle books in my hand, I quickly fill in all of the logic problems. Or at least I try… Some of the harder ones are challenging!
Happy Quilter Variety Puzzles—Volume 2 definitely features logic problems (easy ones and harder ones… all quilt-centric of course). But it also has crossword puzzles, word scrambles, and of course, more word searches! I even discovered and included several new-to-me word puzzles: Criss Crosses, Word Mines, and Word RoundUps. Have you seen these in your newspaper?
In Word Mines, you take a word (in our case a quilt block name) and make as many other words as you can from those letters. How many four-letter words can you come up with from the letters in Bowtie? (There are two—plus 15 three-letter words!) If you're good at Scrabble, you'll be good at this one.
Criss Crosses are a combination of word search and crossword puzzles. (But a bit easier, at least to my mind…) You get a crossword-like grid and a list of words (like in a word search). Then you have to plot your words into the grid using things like number of letters and shared letters to figure out the pattern.
Word RoundUps are also a cross between a word search and crossword puzzle, but in this one you have a grid like you would in a word search. Instead of being given the words to find, like in a word search, you're given clues, like in a crossword puzzle.
With more than 60 different puzzles, there are plenty of puzzles to chose from. I hope you have fun finding solutions! Pick up your copy of Happy Quilter Variety Puzzles today.
