I use a small lap frame with a 14" hoop. Well...the hoop is probably bigger than that, but 14" is my workspace. Start to finish it just depends because I work full time, have 3 children (one disabled), housewife, den parent volunteer for scouts and volunteer some hours for PTA...not counting my quilt club. I now keep a quilt I'm piecing and then a quilt I'm quilting. I recently hand quilted a 54 in square lap quilt. It was a 9 block sampler that I pretty much quilted in the ditch. I got some templates and experimented freehand a little bit. It took me a month...but I only worked on it an hour or so each night, so it was only 30 hours.
I've spent days just thinking about my next one. Transferring pattern instructions to paper, drawing out the blocks, using crayons to test which color would be best. My thinking processes take a lot longer than the time to actually make a quilt. But I hand quilt everything.