How Long Does Something Like this Take?

Hello dear blog readers!
Some of you may know that I have been working on a donation block for the Baltimore Applique Society online auction - Bits of Baltimore. It's fair to say that apart from my gainful employment, I have been working on this project exclusively - and enjoying every minute of it. 



Discovered that my cubicle wall at work
makes an excellent design wall!

Well, yesterday I went back to the organizer for the second time and begged for more time to complete this project. By the way - THANK YOU for the extension Cathy!  
In the email exchange, Cathy mentioned that she had put in well over 80 hour of work into her donation block.  That got me thinking, just how long have I been working on this wall hanging?  Most of the time I have Netflix running in the background while I hand stitch.  So I went back to my Netflix history and was shocked to that since I started work on this block - late February this year - I have watched well over 112 hour programming.  That does not include the time I stitched riding in the car or listening to books on tape.

I am very happy to report that I have enjoyed every minute and every stitch!  And will continue to enjoy it for several dozen hours more because I still have to quilt the piece.  Currently I am marking the quilting design and expect to start hand quilting tomorrow.  Yes - hand quilting.  Even though I am a reasonably accomplished machine quilter, this block screams at me to be hand quilted.

So how long does it something like this take?  The answer is lots and lots of joy-filled hours!

Woven Ribbon quilting pattern in the borders

Radiating quilting design to emphasize the Peahen's tail feathers

Until next time...

Best stitches,
Mercy in Miami