Quilting My Fingers to the Bone

This week, I've been working on quilting my monster quilt. There were two nights after work when I didn't get time to work on it, but despite those two nights, I've put in quite a few hours, mostly taking time off only for important stuff like working, eating, sleeping, and hitting good fabric sales. Here are a couple photos of my progress (and if you click on the photos to make them larger, the white lines you might see are just marking--they'll wash out):

I've really just gotten the center part finished. I'm quilting it pretty densely because (1) I like dense quilting, and (2) I particularly like dense quilting on pictorial quilts. My friend Eileen says I quilt a quilt to death. Or sometimes I applique a quilt to death. Or both. Eileen hand quilts though, so what does she know? I don't hear her offering to hand quilt this one! (Just teasing you, Eileen!) Next I'll start on all the small houses that surround the center quilt shop. These were signed and swapped by my online quilt group a few years ago.

I really need a name for this quilt because it's just too pretty to keep calling it "monster," don't you think? Any suggestions? Here's a photo of the whole top (and DANG you can see how much more I still have to quilt!):

Besides the swapped house blocks, the star blocks that make up the outside border were swapped by the same group. Depending on how the quilting comes out and the end result, I'm thinking about putting it in my guild's quilt show in October under the group quilt category. But we'll see how it goes. This one will take awhile. And can I just mention that the Roman Holiday fabrics I bought yesterday are whispering across the room to me the entire time I'm in the Sweat Shop quilting? They're jealous that I'm not paying them any attention. Or not much attention. Or at least TRYING not to pay them much attention, but I wish they'd just shut up. Otherwise, I'll have to stuff them in a bag and put them on the shelf! Just a warning . . . .