Quilt No.801DA - Dora Andonaros

"Dora's Paploma
In 1957 Mary (Zaimis) Kalenteridis came to Australia with her three daughters, Kristalo, Dora (Theodora), and Ellie, leaving behind their village of Atsiki, on the beautiful north Aegean island of Lemnos, Mary's husband George had preceded them eighteen months earlier. After a time in Canberra, the family moved to Goulburn NSW, where their fourth daughter, Bella, was born, and where George owned a men's barber shop for many years.
Although the girls were young, when they arrived - Dora was only seven, Mary wanted them to have a proper 'prika' (trousseau) in preparation for when they would be old enough to marry. So, a short time after arriving, Mary sent back to her island and ordered three quilts, which her brother Christos brought out. The cotton used in their making was grown on Lemnos, and indeed, one of Dora's enduring childhood memories is of her mother, helping to pick cotton at her grandfather's farm. Mary explains that: 'Paplomata (quilts) were considered a top priority for girls. All handmade, they come in different patterns and designs. Often we would pin a 'sindoni' (embroidered shee)t on to the bottom of the paploma, to protect it. The sheet would be removed for washing or for the 'yiortes', special feast days'.
Dora is very fortunate to have such a 'sindoni', handed down from her mother; handwoven on a traditional 'argalio' (loom) and embroidered with the initials, E.X, of the maker. Together the sindoni and paploma stand as symbols of age-old customs and traditions, and of the changes which inevitably happen through migration.
Dora's husband John also came to Australia from Lemnos. They owned a shop for seventeen years, but now live on their five acre farm where they have a vineyard, olive trees and honeybees. Dora and John have two sons, Paul and George; and a daughter Chrisoula. She and her husband Dimitri have a daughter, Evelyn."
[Written by Lula Saunders; adapted from interview 10.1.01 for the National Quilt Register]