Chocolate Chip Needlepoint Cookies

Years ago I stitched a bunch of needlepoint cookies as shop models. The shopowner finished them like real cookies and put them on a plate. Ultimately she had too take them off display because people kept trying to eat them!

Thus began my interest in seeing how like the real thing stitched cookies could be.

These days the options for stitching and embellishing needlepoint cookies is much greater. And so are your choices of cookie canvases. You can find everything from the humble Tollhouse cookie we’re covering today to fancily iced cookies that look like something Martha Stewart might make.

This occasional series in Nuts about Needlepoint will be covering stitched cookies. You’ll get a recipe for stitching each of the cookies. But, most importantly each article will be broken down into sections. That way if your cookie has a bite from it, but is not this cookie, you will have ideas for stitching it.

Today’s cookie comes from Little Shoppe Canvas Company and is canvas CC-10. I wanted to capture the homemade uneven look of drop cookies as well as the golden brown color that comes from using brown sugar.

The Cookie

Drop cookies generally have an uneven surface. It’s a result of taking the dough and dropping it onto the cookie sheet. Unlike rolled cookies, the surface of the raw dough is uneven, and this texture remains once the cookie is baked.

This canvas brings something of that texture because the canvas is painted in two colors of light golden brown that are close in value. Stitching it throughout with Woven Plait, below, gives it that homemade texture. Because the stitch runs in both directions it has a rougher texture than other stitches might have.

When using this stitch for a cookie where there are thread or color changes requires careful attention. In order to make the texture be effective, you need to keep the stitch pattern consistent. This means stitches may be split between two colors and that you will have to go slowly, going from one are to the adjacent ones, instead of moving to the next area of the same color.

Chocolate Chips

The chips are what really make this cookie look realistic. They are lightly padded with a thread similar to #8 pearl cotton. This will make them slightly raised and rounded.

The top layer is stitched using Neon Rays which gives the chips a smooth texture. For semi-sweet chips use the darkest shade of brown. If your chips are a different flavor, pick the color that matches.

In order to get the rounded edges, your padding stitches need to be one thread smaller all around than the chip’s outline. The padding is made with long horizontal or vertical Gobelin Stitches.

The top layer is the same stitch but going in the opposite direction. The top layer of stitches covers the entire area of the chip. Sometimes when you are stitching this layer, you feel as if you are not getting complete coverage. If so, it is OK to make additional stitches to full the space.

Bites

If you look at the canvas, you will see that the round outline of the cookie before the bit is marked on the canvas. You could stitch in this area and finish it as a round, but I prefer to create a realistic bite.

In order to do that you need to give your finisher some help by stitching a margin. I make a four-thread margin all around the stitched area. I use a thread to match the canvas color and T Stitch.

Having this margin allows the finisher to make the cookie without losing the important stitched area.