How long does it take? Part 2, Are you really asking about duration?

I am still figuring out how to answer this question.

It comes most often from the non-crafty, non-artist person looking at my work, with perhaps a degree of horrified fascination.

They are (at minimum) intending to show a polite interest. They are (I think) baffled by the mechanics of creation.

Like a good former reference librarian, I can't take this question at face value. I want to climb into their head a little, figure out what it is they really want to know.

If the question was "how long did it take?" that's amenable of a brief answer:elapsed time at x intensity.

However, the question is almost always "how long DOES it take?" and I think that's a deeper question about ongoing process and the experience of making. 

Am I right? 

The photo shows a king-sized quilt of hand-pieced 3-D bow tie blocks, 4 inches square. By the end of the project I could stitch one with my eyes shut, in about 15 minutes. I made them only when travelling, over a period of about 7 years. How long did that take? To me, it is the least interesting element.