I am very nostalgic about these things. In order to keep the original stitching and remove the brittle background, this is what I would do: I would trim around Sue about 1/4 inch all around (She would have a quarter-inch halo of background all around her), then I'd press the background completely under Sue so that it did not show at all, and hand applique it to a new background. Does this make sense? BTW those blocks are adorable.