A few years ago I designed a generous queen size applique quilt for a raffle for our Guild. the various blocks were made up into kits and we selected qualified appliquers in the group to do the blocks. the result was outstanding and I couldn't stand to give it to someone else to hand quilt. So I did it myself.
I decided to keep track of my hours. I chose to do a diagonal grid, about 1 1/2" apart, both ways, and outline the applique patches.
It took 300 hours, looked fantastic. And I couldn't hand stitch for over a year because my hands hurt!
BTW, we earned over $3000 which we used for our programs.