I have so much old and new fabric - actually now I am getting rid of the fabric I haven't touched in 2 years. I use what works - never cared about the age. If the fabric is truly weak I would throw it away. I have a piece of Disney's 3 Little Pigs fabric that my mom used back in 1952 which is still very strong and I have been putting a piece of it in all the quilts I make for the great grand kids. (My mom told me to find the fabric before she died in 2009 and asked me to use it somehow since my niece was expecting twins at the time.) Lately I have slowed in my quilting because my daughter had my grandson in 12/2020 and I watched him full time until August when he started day care. In 2 weeks we will have our first granddaughter and I will be watching her until she is old enough for day care with her brother. (I am so excited!). But they keep me busy so quilting has been difficult. And lets face it - buying new fabric is fun, so...... I am keeping the majority of my Christmas & Halloween fabrics - I LOVE making seasonal quilts. And I have taken it off the comic book cardboards. It was just too hard to keep up with it all.

My oldest fabric is about 10 years old. My goal is to use all of my old fabric and not buy any new fabric. I'm starting to make my Halloween quilt today with the 10 year old fabric.

Most of my fabric is less than 5 years old. If I don't use it by a certain time I know I won't and out it goes. I purge at least once a year and it makes me more productive.

I am in the process if trying to use older fabric some I just did not want to cut into before now I think I can without regret.
I also had fabrics that I did not think went with anything, now I see things different they seem to work

My oldest fabric is from the 1960s. My uncle was a pattern maker in the garment district of NYC and the fabric was from a line of blouses his company made. I try to include a piece of this fabric in every quilt I make. Yes, it passes the rip test, so I am confident using it. I will be very sad when it is all gone.

What a wonderful idea! Good for you for honoring your uncle this way.

Maybe it's because all of my fabric is stored in the house and we run A/C most of the year to keep the humidity down, but I've never had a problem mixing older fabrics with newer ones. I have 25 year old fabric that I've used with new fabric. I've never had the new fabrics be stronger than the older ones and cause problems.