When we make charity quilts for our guild we are supposed to report the number of hours spent. I believe this helps the guild maintain its status as a charity for tax purposes. I have trouble remembering to keep track because I've never paid attention when doing them for other reasons. It surprises me, however, to see how much time is involved because when I'm enjoying myself time goes fast.
I'm currently working on a lap quilt that another member of the guild cut and made into a kit. All I did so far was decide which order to arrange the blocks (bricks) for this very simple top and then sew them together. There are 10 rows of 6 1/2 bricks each and sewing and ironing the seams took almost 3 hours. It seems like nothing to me, but now there is the sandwiching, quilting and binding to do. It will be interesting to see just how much time this little quilt involves, keeping in mind that someone else has already invested quite a bit of time in it, too.