Drawing feathers on paper has to be one of the best suggestions ever! Remember to practice from the top of the page, as well as from the bottom and from right and left edges. Practice until it is "second nature" ... I have had my Juki DX7 since April, and have used it a lot. It's a great machine. I've used it for piecing, quilting and used the decorative stitches for crazy quilt blocks. You might want to look up a thread I posted recently on a problem I'm having with the needle hole slide plate. It's probably an isolated problem on my machine, but you might want to check it out.