Everyone loves feathers, but really they are one of the most difficult patterns to accomplish. It takes a lot of daily practice. Quilting once or twice every week or two isn't enough practice to develop the muscle skills - it needs to be everyday until you succeed...however long it takes. So draw everyday, then after a week or two, get on the machine and practice. Each day should be 15-20 minutes. You WILL be successful if you practice daily. Keep your old practices, so you can see your improvement - you'll be surprised at how well this works!
Hooked on Feathers is a great book for learning easier alternative feathers, as well as Kimmy's CD mentioned above. But, you do have to practice daily. There's no way around the practicing. Also, classes are wonderful if you have them near you, if not, use DVD's and books.
Feathers are the hardest, so also try working with templates and doing continuous curves in squares/stars, using a ruler to SID (stitch in the ditch), chalk and stencils, and pantographs, as mentioned above. All these things will help - but you won't learn if you can't put forth the hours to practice. Longarm quilters put in hundreds of hours to learn, and they don't quit (too much invested!). They have so much invested in time, books, DVD's, classes, materials, etc. So, keep working on it. Practice, obtain some materials to help, and you'll succeed! Everyone succeeds, if you put in enough practice time :)
Good luck - and if you have questions, be sure to ask!
Debbie in Austin