Woman’s western, crafts store rose out of necessity

NEW TOWN, N.D. (AP) – Karen Paetz Sitting Crow started Star Blanket Mercantile to sell her handmade star quilts.

Soon she began to think, if she needed material as a quilter, others would too. So, she started selling material.

“There’s no fabric store in New Town and there’s many, many quilters,” Sitting Crow told the Bismarck Tribune.

Then she added quilting supplies. Then she added other crafting materials and Pendleton blankets. Sitting Crow kept adding to her venture, morphing it into something of a general store. Now the two buildings in her New Town backyard are full.

“I was trying to meet a need in the community; that’s how it developed,” she said. “One thing led to another.”

Selling her quilts had been a lifelong dream when Sitting Crow built the two buildings in her backyard two blocks north of Rensch Chevrolet Buick two years ago. Her quilting machine took up one building and the second was for inventory.

At first it was a hobby. She told neighbors if they saw her vehicle outside to come by and she would open the store for them. She remembers being in her pajamas one Sunday morning cutting material.

Being a crafter herself, Sitting Crow knows that feeling when you’re a yard short or need one more string of beads to finish a project. The problem is New Town is 75 miles from any major town and most local stores are closed on Sundays.

Customers began asking her to carry more things – baby goods and gifts. Sitting Crow is a horsewoman and there are many around the area, so that led to the addition of horse tack to her inventory.

Sitting Crow also added authentic tribal crafts – high-end items like hand painted rawhide lamps and deer skulls. She sells her mother’s homemade pow wow dancing shawls and Cowgirl Bling jewelry, which she makes and designs herself.

The storefront fits her 1800s western mercantile theme, with rough wood, a wood burning stove and a buffalo mount hanging on the wall.

Sitting Crow licensed her business a year and a half ago but her skill began long before. The Native American side of her family is full of crafters. Her grandmother sewed leather and did bead work. Her aunt showed her how to cut little diamonds for star quilts.

As a dancer in traditional pow wows, Sitting Crow made her own dance clothes and sewed her own clothes in high school.

“Part of it was because I enjoyed it and part of it is who I am,” she said.

Since retiring from work as an administrator at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, Sitting Crow has had more time for the store, which is good because she said it takes a lot of work to run it.

Star Blanket Mercantile’s winter hours are noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and by appointment on Sunday. Hours will likely change in the summer but Sitting Crow still encourages customers to come knocking any time they see the lights on. She’ll open up for them.

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Information from: Bismarck Tribune, http://www.bismarcktribune.com