Well as for the age of fabrics - I don't know how long they have been on the bolts at the fabric store. I do know that in cleaning up my stash and putting it on bolts that I have found buried fabrics that I can date back 20 years. I assume that I will never get through all the fabric that I have down there in my lifetime so I am taking no chances. (The fabric from 20 years ago was originally made into a maternity blouse for my now deceased DIL. I will be putting it into a memory quilt for her daughter who will be graduating for HS soon.)