In their earliest form, samplers were put together as personal reference works for embroiderers: trials of patterns and stitches that had been copied from others, records of particular effects achieved that could be recreated again. In England and elsewhere in Europe in the 17th century, they developed into a method of instruction and practice for girls learning needlework. The maker of this sampler, Martha Wheeler, has carefully embroidered the date and precise details of her age alongside a pious verse. Yet the sampler is unfinished: there is an unworked area at the bottom. The Florentine, or flame stitch, pattern, and the floral and other motifs are the type of decoration she might have embroidered for furnishings like fire screens or coverlets.