Help with a vintage quilt
 

I recently inherited a quilt top from the early 1940's. However, it came with newspaper attached all over the back of it. I was wondering if it was okay to keep the newsprint on it or if I should take it off to preserve the fabric? Any suggestions or help would be great!

I had one like that. I removed the newspaper and hand quilted it. It will be interesting to see that others think.:)

You really, really need to take it off. What a job. But paper is very acidic and will eat up your fabric. It will take a lot of time, but be worth it.

It would be nice to read the newspaper and look for dates. She may have started it in the 30's because it took time back then to collect even the newspaper. Have fun.

I remember seeing something similar at a quilt museum that still had the newspapers, receipts etc still attached, they had left them on as it was part of the quilts history

How interesting. I wish you had some pictures to post so we all could see the newspaper attached.

About a year ago I purchased 3 quilt tops at $10 each from an estate sale. They were string pieced on a 1960 Oklahoma Stockman magazine (most pages similar to newsprint). It was fun to look at the articles and ads on the paper. I loaned one to the quilt display put on by the Ranching Heritage Museum at Texas Tech last summer. I subsequently sold 2 of them and am now harvesting fabric from the last one to be used in a vintage quilt I am making.

I am in agreement that the paper should be removed if the quilt top is to be finished.

Dayle

It needs to come off. STAT.

If the paper looks interesting, I might photograph it so that it can be preserved as well,before it gets torn off. I love old things, especially from the 30's.