Vintage Church Plates

I've been collecting vintage church plates for almost 16 years. But, of course, in true Kristi fashion...I just hung them up last week. In my own defense, I'm one who whole-heartedly believes a collection isn't something that happens overnight. And I wasn't quite ready to display all of these in a partial format (although, this may be partial in itself...is a collection ever really finished?).

Today is also the July edition of the Thrifty Style Team. 
All of my friends have some fantastic, budget-friendly posts to share, too.

All of their awesome links are toward the bottom of this post...be sure to check them out!

I'm not sure I know of anyone else who collects church plates...it's a bit random (as am I). This collection started with one single plate left to me in a hope chest by my great aunt when she died.

After that first plate, I couldn't stop collecting them. I stick to my plate rule when purchasing these (I use this on all of my plate collections)...I won't spend more than $5 per plate. I have some pretty awesome friends and family, too. My friend Bethany and my cousin Janice always seem to grab one of these church plates when they find them, as well (Bethany is my partner in junkin' and Janice works estate sales...they both have a great eye for these). When I received the recent plates that my cousin mailed me, I was ready to put the nails into the walls and hang these up!

I had planned to display these in my dining room all along...but Bethany's recent visit inspired me to get going a bit faster in this room (it was looking pretty womp-womp). And this corner in the dining room that juts in was just screaming for something to wrap around it.

As I mentioned above, my very first church plate was in a hope chest that my Great Aunt Margaret left to me when she passed away. That hope chest had so much stuff in it, that I kind of went through it a little at a time. I received it when I was in college and it sat in my parents' storage unit for several years. This hope chest was truly enormous and as a college kid and then young adult, I truly had no place for it. Thankfully, the hope chest's contents were emptied into boxes and sent to live with me after I got married. Sadly, my parents' storage unit was broken into shortly after that and the hope chest was taken. It still makes me sick thinking about it. That unit contained both my great aunt's items and my uncle's items from when we cleaned out his home after his death. Not a lot was left after it was broken into...and there were so many beautiful family heirloom furniture pieces in there.

I am thankful, however, that I had the actual contents of the chest. It had several antique furniture scarves, several afghans, wall art, old framed family portraits, Blue Spode china, a transferware sake cup collection (cheers, Aunt Margaret), and this one blue and white church plate from the Mount Lebanon Methodist Church in North Carolina. While my aunt Margaret never lived in North Carolina, she was a member of the Methodist church. I'm not completely sure how she ended up with this plate. But, I'm delighted that she basically fueled a life-long dish collecting phenomenon for me. 

I adore the scalloped edge on this particular plate...and the blue and white is so pretty!

Another fave is one from my cousin, Janice. This red and white transferware-style plate from a cathedral in Nevada is just gorgeous, y'all. I pretty much squealed when I unwrapped it. Gorgeous. Having a cousin that works estate sales (and knows my "needs") is the coolest.

A lot of the plates I have are actually from local churches. They end up in thrift stores all the time. I frequent one particular thrift store in Belton that Bethany and I refer to as the "plate store"...I can always count on them for a good local church plate.

This particular one from a church in Nebraska is so pretty and colorful!
It's the only one I have that has this many colors in it.

I love to think about all of the lives that have been touched by these sweet churches.

If I'm on this side of the table, I love to see the reflection of the plates in my mirror. This mirror goes hand in hand with the dining table. They both belonged to my mother who gave them to me when they downsized about 12 years ago. Before my mom, these pieces belonged to her late brother, my Uncle Butch. Both my mother and uncle enjoyed the reflection of family and friends packed around the dining table and always had this mirror on a dining room wall. 

This photo isn't plate related...but I did want to share a little more of the progress on the dining room. I found my shade of aqua drapes on clearance at Homegoods recently. I like having these open most of the time, but my middle schooler does his homework in here during the school year...sometimes into the late night. It's nice to be able to close these for privacy during those times. 

Be sure to check out all of my friends' posts this month, too, for even more thrifty ideas: 

An InLinkz Link-up

What kinds of things do you like to collect?

Neglect your chores like me and don't miss a thing:

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