Quilt No.1116YG - Yiota Grigorakis

"Yiota's Paploma. Yiota's beautiful paploma (quilt) made in 1932, was handed down to her from her mother. It was part of Georgia's prika, the dowry which every Greek girl has when she marries. Georgia's mother, Vasiliki Pantazopoulou would have ordered the paploma to be made by someone in their village of Smerna, or in nearby Pirgos, on the western side of the Peloponnesus, Greece's southern mainland.
Yiota was born in 1952, the third child after Vasiliki and Costa. Her parents, Grigori and Georgia Nikolakopoulou owned fields, horafiaa, and grew their own grapes, sultanas, citrus fruit, cotton and staple olives. But, the post- war decades in Greece were very difficult economically, and many families moved to Athens to try to find work. So, at the age of twelve, Yiota joined various members of her family in Athens, where she worked until migrating to Australia in 1970.
After working in Botany for two years, Yiota married Kyriako Grigorakis who, for forty years, ran his own fitter-and-turner business. They have two daughters, Aristea and Georgia.
Iota speaks with gratitude about the life they have made in Australia. Her house, with its vine covered veranda and palm trees, is a reminder of what she left behind, as is her paploma, which is still in excellent condition."
[Written by Lula Saunders, adapted from interview 15.2.02 for the National Quilt Register.]