Elaborate embroidered panels such as this, known as samplers, were made by young girls as a compendium of needlework. By the sixteenth century, the tradition was firmly established in Europe. This is one of the two earliest known Mexican samplers. The inclusion of a roundel with the Immaculate Conception suggests it was made in a convent school. It also includes a pelican feeding its young, a symbol of the Eucharist, as well as embroidered images of the sun, moon, and stars—motifs associated with the Immaculate Conception— among other whimsical details.