Feathery Ambitions

I've been holding off quilting these placemats I made in July since I didn't know what to do with them. I plan on binding them in a pretty yellow but was stumped on how to quilt it. I could have done a meandering stipple or swirls but the main reason I've been making placemats and smaller projects is to improve my free motion quilting skills. I somehow got it into my head yesterday that I wanted to do feathered wreaths in the center of each one. Nothing like being ambitious. One would expect that I'm already skilled at quilting feather. Ha! Of course not.

I did a little bit of practicing this afternoon but I can't seem to get into a good groove and struggle to make the feathers on one side of the stem. Still, I decided to make an initial wreath to see how far I've got to go before it's good enough for the finished product.