Very nice quilt! I love how you stitched inside the blocks rather than in the ditches, it made a nice effect.
I have never sent a quilt out for stitching. I'm not sure whether I'm just too cheap or am still thinking I can do it myself. Like you, it's been shove and squeeze every turn. With my last quilt, I tried rolling and pinned the rolls to hold them shut. I'm going back to the stuff and shove, because the rolls made heavy lumps that kept falling off the table or getting stuck and not letting the fabric feed under the needle properly. That said, as I shove, I roll too, just not fastened. And, I bought a pair of garden gloves with the cloth backs and rubber nubbly palms that work great.
You have a lot of quilting in you before you need to have someone else do it and with the beautiful start you've made, you may never send out a quilt.