My Mother made quilts like this, mostly from recycled wool which doesn't need batting but the paper was used for stability.
I believe Alex Alexander had this as a feature on one of her quilting shows, but I do not remember that newspaper was used for batting, only for a stable base. The patches could be very large pieces and they were sewn up into blocks the size of the newspaper. As I recall this was popular during the war and fabric was not always available. Fabrics were used in larger pieces and were quickly pieced and often given for charitry