8 years! I didn't work on it all that time. I made the top and set it aside. Then I took it out a couple of years later and tried to hand quilt it. I'm not that great at hand quilting and the batting was too thick for me to handle. Put it aside again. Tried hand quilting again. Put it aside. Then finally bought a quilting needle, and did it on my domestic machine. Had to have the machine serviced after that was done. I did a wobbly stitch in the ditch. With the thick batting, it looked very nice.