Rag Letters

So my hubby quit smoking! hooray!!! but now his jeans are too tight! so i decided to get crafty and use them to create rag letters for Jada Roo. I got this idea from HERE. I also had a bunch of Jada's receiving blankets kicking around so i cut those up and made another alphabet set. The receiving blanket set is super soft with 2 layers of flannel and the backing is white felt. I used 3 different pattern blankets. Wouldn't you know it my sewing machine quit! no surprise there! Anyway i had to sew them by hand. I wish i knew why that machine just will not cooperate! this time it chewed my fabric inside to the bobbin then bent and broke the needle. The past few weeks it's been un threading itself. Can you tell I'm not a sewing machine kind of girl?