OOOOOHhhh BCQLaur .... Love it!!! Great mix of batiks. Autumn colours are my favourites ... and so why I'm jumping with excitement to see your DH's and why I want to see more of your feathers.
About the directions of your feathers ... You don't know which way the block is going to end up when its all assembled, so I don't think I'd fret too much about them.
One of my first quilts was a slash the stash similar to yours ... we did a lot more cuts and kept them sstraight and square. I think we started with 14 or 16 inch blocks? Here's a pic ....
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