It depends on how dedicated you are to your project. The largest one that is stitched was 120 x 120. It took about nine months. I worked on a smaller piece at the same time. I think that those who say a project takes five to seven years are stitching other stuff in between. As you probably already know there are stitchers on this Chat who have quite a few WIPs. Obviously if you are only working on one pattern at a time you get it done faster. Next time you sit down to stitch anything keep track of how much you get stitched in a two hour time frame. Use that amount approximate the amount of time the larger piece. SIMPLE EXAMPLE: You decide that you can stitch 200 stitches in one hour. The Artecy pattern is 400 x 500 stitches. That is 200,000 stiches. Divide by 200. Approximately 1,000 hours to complete project.

I agree, it all depends on how much time you stitch at each sitting. It has never taken me more than, possibly 8-9 months to finish any multi-page, coverall project, even my Thomas Kinkade Courageous Voyage, with lots of color changes. The one I'm currently working on, has 87 colors, and multiple pages. I started it late last summer, & have a few weeks, maybe a month to go on it yet, but I have worked numerous projects at the same time, otherwise it would be completed by now. My aim now is to get this completed, & to my framer, before I start anything else, (famous last words)
Don't get discouraged, & just work on it when you can. You will be amazed at how well it comes together.
Have fun, after all, it's just a hobby, not a job. When you start thinking I will never get this done, it defeats that description of a hobby

I am doing an Artecy pattern right now, that I THINK is 24 pages. I started at the VERY end of October last year and I JUST hit the halfway mark. However, during that time frame, I also dealt with all the holiday stuff, my kitchen being torn out due to a water heater leak, and going back to work full time, so that has slowed me way down. I have done charts that took years to complete, but that is usually due to losing interest and lollygagging around. Melanie

Nancye, what a great way to explain the "time span" in doing one of these projects! I just went into my stash and found "Autumn Chapel" (Artecy). It also is about 24 pages. It is absolutely beautiful and reminds me of my home in the mountains! I was looking over these pages and the symbols Tereena Clarke uses. I really think I will make "better time" than I am on several other projects I have under way. I would call her symbols "friendly".!!

Thank you all for your responses. That is making a difference in its location on my stash. It has just moved up from the bottom to the top third.

You are making me feel guilty taking 20 - 25 years to complete 2 of my projects. I lost interest when I started to make mistakes and put them to one side and went on with others. I picked them up over the years and stitched a bit more but once I start having to unpick I have to put them to one side and pick up another one. I now have 2 that have been in progress for at least 10 years but they will be fiinished soon although one of them (101 Dalmatians Alphabet Sampler will take longer due to it being on 18 count Aida and stitching white on white with fractionals). I am over half way in the latest picture and have brought the pattern for "Sweet Remembrance" to work to copy and I will start preparing the material for stitching and making sure I have all the threads in my stash.

Deirdre,

Do NOT feel guilty about taking so long on a project- I have never met a stitcher that HASN'T had a project or two in that state. The attached picture shows a project that I had started 15-20 years ago, and did the same thing as you. Pull it out everynow and then - finally got it out a couple of years ago and finished it and gave it to my sister- and that seemed to start a FLOOD of projects- I'm doing all wild cats. I have completed two tigers, a lion, a snow leopard, a black panther and now working on my jaguar. Still have a cougar, a cheetah, and maybe a couple of others to go, and suddenly, I am looking at wolf patterns , go figure. Melanie

Melanie that is exquisite. No wonder it took so long to do.

Deidre,

It took so long because it was on 28 count over two threads- so VERY easy to get off count on it, and VERY frustrating to get back ON. I also have a very cool frame stand that I got over 30 years ago- you can't even get them any more. At one point we got a new puppy and I was so afraid he would eat my stand, and I was so frustrated with that project that I literally took the stand apart and put everything away for a VERY long time- spent about 15 years making teddy bears until my hands gave out- now I can barely use scissors, but thank goodness I can still cross stitch. So over the last two and a half years, I have been in a cross stitch frenzy- I am doing everything on 14 count black aida, and all of the projects cover the material completely- no jumping way over and praying I counted it out correctly. I attached my lion, and I finished a black panther in between the lion and the jaguar, but not finding the picture of that one. Melanie

Yes Melanie I used to hand make teddy bears many years ago but lost interest when I got involved with cross stitching and now have lots of material, patterns and joints etc. stashed away. Still haven't decided what to do with them yet. Your lion looks lovely as well.