Marking samplers, such as this one, were typically produced by children between the ages of three and nine as an exercise in "plain work," or basic sewing and embroidery skills. Their simple compositions usually consist of bands of text composed or selected by the pupil's tutor, or her older female relations. Martha Washington's seven-year-old granddaughter, Martha Parke Custis, made this sampler. Her rendering of the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments can be seen as both as a lesson in reading and writing, and as an instruction in Christian faith.