How long did it take me? That's a hard question to answer. Getting the equipment prepared to pinning the layers to the frame...........well, I take my time doing that (about an hour). Then there's the brain work. Trying to figure out what to do where and how to do it can take a long time because I want to do my best to enhance the quilt top, not take away from it. I need to learn a lot more about that. The actual sewing? This one took me 3 days of several hours each day. How detailed do you want me to get? LOL Thread breaks, moving the quilt back and forth to different positions, bobbins run out, special use of some foam rubber with each move and, for heaven's sake, should I have to take stitching out..............Now that's a nightmare and that takes FOREVER! One tiny little thread on one of the tracks can cause you to lose control and start getting bumps where you don't want them, then you have to stop, move the machine away from the quilt and clean all the tracks AGAIN, stop and oil the mahcine every 2 hours. Shall I continue? I think you're getting the picture. Probably more than you wanted to know. Getting the idea why the cost seems so high? If we got paid by the hour, a lot of us probably only would be making about $5.00 an hour, less our overhead costs.