quilterpurpledog, three tips that really helped me were:
1) make the plumes plumper than you want to.
2) stop on the spine and plan out how you are going to arrange your hands to make each plume in one motion so you don't get hesitation marks.
3) plumes are teardrop shaped.
I am going through a lot of paper, practicing before I go to the sewing machine. I can do the curvy ones OK, but am having real trouble with the straight line ones.
Watson