The earliest samplers were reference works for embroiderers. They showed 'samples' of patterns and stitches and recorded how to achieve particular effects. In Europe in the 17th century samplers provided instruction and practice for girls learning needlework. In The Netherlands, needleworkers made elaborate darning samplers to show off their darning skills in the later 1700s. These samplers may have been the source for English darning samplers. However the samplers from The Netherlands are more usually signed and dated than the English ones.
Gerarda Gerritsen is known to have lived in Bree in Middelburg, where she died in 1797. She was 13 years old when she made the sampler. The “SS” on the sampler refers to her teacher Sarah Scholtus. There are seven known by the same teacher, one of which in the Collection Centraal Museum, Utrecht, has her name in full.